11 Months and I'm STILL Confused about Calories

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I for sure want to watch this thread because I am in a similar boat. I have found that whether I eat 1200 or 2000 calories a day (at 290 lbs), I won't lose a pound if I don't get a lot of exercise in. I have only made significant progress when I cut calories quite a bit. I think the binge triggers would be easier to fight if I were seeing consistent progress, though.

i have only been doing mfp for 3 weeks, i lost 10 lb, i exercise for 3 hours a day i just do basic dancing to music i enjoy, i also try and get a 40 minute walk each day . I eat 1600 calories a day but i include a lot of carbs in my diet as it keeps me fueled up , so i am wondering if it is because you r not getting enough carbs and this is why feel hungry and binge eat . I have also got a reason to lose the weight which motivates me into exercise and stick to it , hubby is taking me to disney in florida next year so i focus on that and also if i feel hungry i do something else to take my mind off it. I used to get hungry everyday around 3 in the afternoon , but now i find that has passed and its all down to the routine i was in and instead of the food cravings controlling me i am controlling it . Not sue if this helps but i though i would add my progress .
good luck .

p.s i don't weigh any of my food i guess at portions and it seems to be working and i wonder if this is because i don't feel deprived by having to weigh all my food , just a though

Ahoy! Ok, so I've been on MFP for about 11 months now and I'm still not clear about the whole calories thing. I'm a heavy hitter, I weigh 295, down from 327 and I'm 5'7". I've got my counter set at 1lb per week and I eat about 1800-2200 calories a day with the 80/20 appoach, on average which seems like what a lot of people that weigh, much, much less than me eat. Some weeks I get all my workouts in and some weeks I don't. But even still, one would think that at my weight, I'd be able to lose AT LEAST 1lb a week, if not more fairly easily by maintaining a 2,000 calorie diet. Yet, this is not so. I'm averaging just under a pound a week. If I try to cut much below that for any period of time, I end up starving and then binging and that defeats the whole purpose and I break even. If anyone knowledgeable could lay out a guideline for me, and perhaps offer some solutions, that would be great.

increase your deficit. i think your BMR/TDEE calculations are incorrect. i also think you may have logging accuracy issues with your food and exercise.

assuming you are in normal health, you should be able to lose at 1.5lbs/week or 2lbs/week without a problem for the next few months.

i calculate a TDEE of 2540 for you without exercise. try sticking with 1800 calories (not going over) in order to lose at 1.5lbs/week and make sure to eat back most or all of your exercise calories. if you can, doublecheck your exercise calorie calculations to make sure you are not overestimating them.

to help you stay at a lower calorie level, increase your protein and reduce your trigger foods. for me, breads and pastas trigger me to eat more because i get hungry again soon after eating them, so i reduce the amount of those foods i eat to help me keep my calories down.

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Well, I've lost 32 lbs in 49 weeks, which is only about .65 lb/week. However, there were times when I jumped off the wagon for a time. Maybe you are right. I will shut up now.

I'd say you have one of the two main ingredients for weight loss, kcalorie deficit, and now you just need to work on the other, patience. Hang in there, the scale is moving in the right direction. Are your measurements changing for the better?

Congrats on your loss! I also lost about 80 pounds in the same time frame (pics in my profile) from a drastic cut and guess what? Gained it back, my dear. Not going to make the same mistakes twice, I'll tell you that much. My understanding of EMTWL is: Do not eat under your BMR. Take your TDEE and cut it 20% to get an appropriate amount of calories. There is no possible way you could accurately assess my TDEE without taking into account my body fat percentage, which I did not disclose. I'm happy what you're doing is working for you but that's not to say what works for one will work for another.

my BMR number for you wasn't far from the one you came up with (only about a 7% difference). good luck to you and don't forget my advice about the Eat, Train, Progress group. there are very patient and knowledgeable people in there who are helping a lot of people who are having trouble setting their macros or suffering on long plateaus.