Do you really want to lose fat? Then EAT SOMETHING!!!

I have just been on another site for the Harris-Benedict formula. No wonder my calculations were so low. For a woman you should add 655 NOT 65. This gives me a more realistic amount of calories.

I'm a 5'7" 193 lb. 18 year old, and I stick to the 1200 net calories per day allotted by MFP, and I'm doing great! I feel great, I have energy, and I'm rarely ever hungry. I think as long as we listen to our bodies (when it tells you it's hungry/deprived, NOT when it tells you to eat 5 chocolate chip cookies in one sitting) we'll be fine - after all, who knows more about what we need to survive than the very thing we are trying to make healthy?
Just my take.

I totally agree!

Ok, here's the two paragraph's about how many calories to eat:
The best answer to the question is that it’s relative! But, if you insist on numbers, it's said that the average requirement for a woman is to consume 1500 calories a day and that for a man, it's 2000 calories a day. But, this is an unsatisfactory answer. This is completely based on the law of averages, and for those on the extremes, this data is irrelevant.

The simplest answer is, it depends! It actually depends on a few factors. If you're query is 'how many calories should I eat a day?', then there has to be a purpose for such a question to be put forth. Here, the possible purposes might be to lose weight, gain weight or during convalescence. In such a case, factors like, 'how much physically active are you?', or 'what is the percentage of fat in your body?' and 'what is your current weight?', come into picture. It is also possible that you may be absolutely fit and wish to avoid gaining or losing weight.

So, it's RELATIVE and IT DEPENDS. And the 1500 for women and 2000 for men is an AVERAGE. You know how you get an average? Add a bunch of numbers and divide by the total amount of numbers you have. You have 3 women, one needs 1800/day, another 1200/day and another 1500/day. The average? 1500!

I like that you are trying to give advice and giving a great article for us to read, but it does depend on the person. And you are also ripped. Muscle burns more calories than fat when it's just sitting there doing nothing, so of course you need something like 2500/day. So, you are not everyone else on here and you also have different goals than other people. We are all trying to get fit, but some have a higher weight loss goal than others and some are just trying to tone and build muscle.

I absolutely agree with this... Most people should be eating more than they are...

How ever! I have a hard time believing that 2000 calories a day will make me lose weight... I wasn't even eating that much before when I was gaining weight... but 1200 doesn't help me lose weight either... a healthy balance of strenght training/ cardio and about 17-1800 calories is my fun balance for maintainence.

17-1800 is the tip top for me.. 14-1500 is my 1/2 pound weight loss per week zone.

I agree with you 100%

Ok, so I just did my caloric intake based on the article and I came out to 1319 calories per day to sustain myself with 3 days of exercise. Which is about right. MFP has me at 1200 to lose 1 pound a week. So 1200/day for me works. I obviously cannot do the 500 deficit per day like you're supossed to since that would put me at 819 calories/day.

Basically, follow the article and see what you get. You may need to adjust a little or you may right on track.

My weigh in days are Thursday. This is the first week (in 3-4 weeks I think) I haven't lost. Been eating 1200 and burning 200-400 approx and seemed to have been losing.
Upon reading so much about calories on here I decided to go ahead and eat 1400-1600 and keep burning the same.
But now I've gained instead of lost. So confusing!