What should be my calorie goal?

Blossomforth13

MFP gave me a goal of 1200, but several people said they felt it was too low, which brings me the question of what is the proper calorie number I should be using? I want to do this right. I'm 5'2" and 217 lbs. I was told by a doctor to aim between 109 and 122, so I picked 115, going for the middle ground. He also told me to try and lose around 2 lbs a week. I have congenital hypotonia, or chronic muscle weakness, so one of my goals is to have more strength. I am only able to get to a gym on weekends -- should I have a higher calorie intake on those days, or should it all be the same? I know it's going to take time to lose the weight and especially to build the muscle, working against the hypotonia, since every PT I had has been focusing on maintaining and refused to even think about building strength, but these are changes I desperately want to make and make in the best way possible, so help would definitely be appreciated.

4legsRbetterthan2

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

This is a really good calorie calculator. One thing to think about is your BMR (which that website will calculate for you) or your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is a calculation of the number of calories your body uses just to function minus any sort of exercise (basically if you were in a coma this is what you would be burning). Eating well below your BMR for long periods of time can make you hungry, irritable, and lead to nutritional imbalances and other health issues so usually it is not advised.

Following MFPs rules you would track the exercise you do and eat back your exercise calories. So yes, you will be eating more on those day.

Since you can't go to the gym on weekday can you try to get in some exercise another way, walking?