Eating at 1700 or more??

I'm at about 2100 and it has been working great for me.

Then again, I'm male and 6'3", so there's that.

Anyway, I say give it a shot. If it works and you can stick with it, that's what counts. Slow progress is still progress, right?

I'm 210 at 5'8, so pretty similar to you, and I've been consistently losing about a pound per week eating between 1500-1800 per day. I find that eating this much is sustainable for me - I'm satiated, I have enough energy, etc. When I eat as low as 1200-1300, I start to feel unwell. I haven't been a yo-yo dieter myself - when I decide to do something I'm pretty good about sticking to it - so I wanted to be mindful of approaching weight loss in a way that wouldn't involve a huge amount of deprivation and suffering, so that I can stick with it long term. I've got PCOS that I manage medically, so I totally sympathize with how hard it can be to lose weight with an endocrine disorder.

I have an open diary am maintaining or trying to!! I eat a large amount of calories to stop dropping weight!! I think as my fitness increase and muscle tone did my metabolism increased.. I am very active generally and go to the gym too feel free to add if you want a supportive buddy with different goals

Larger calorie budgets are awesome. They allow you to fit in little indulgences and really make it easier to stick to (in my opinion at least). At the same time, for some people it means they have to tighten up their logging (food scale...less guessing).

I'm 5'4.5", 177lbs (as of yesterday morning) and for the last month have averaged about 1920 calories per day.

I averaged around 1800-1900 calories per day last year and went from 218lbs in March to 170lbs in September (month I found out I was pregnant). I'm currently working my way back down from 212lbs in May (2 days before c-section @ 41wks pregnant).

There is no harm in trying it. Try it for a couple weeks. You can track your calorie intake/loss on the progress tab of this spreadsheet and it will give you an estimated TDEE based on how much your losing/consuming. With that info, you should be able to adjust your calories as needed to see the weight loss you want.

The spreadsheet was made by the very helpful heybales (sp).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE#gid=14

I'm 5'8", 45, & male. I haven't been able to meet my daily caloric goal of 1630 (started around 1820) but been consistently eating just below maintenance of around 2000-2200 and making up the difference with exercise. I walk ~40 miles per month (~2.3 miles per work day at >4 mph pace) and ride 6-8 hours per week (16-17 mph pace). My hardest days have been on my rest days from cycling where I find myself starving. So far so good and I'm averaging around a pound per week. It's a different strategy but works for me; just not sure how well it'll workout on the long term especially once I hit my weight goal and the eventual cut back on the exercise.

First thing I would do if I was you is to be vigilant on your thyroid medication as T3/4 are important in maintain a whole host of cellular activities including regulation of protein, fat, and carbohydrate metabolism.

Second, I would recommend exploring different strategies with respect macro-nutrient composition. My weakness is carbohydrate so I limit them and try to eat more lean protein. I find protein helps with hunger control while limiting my loss of LBM. I also employ structural refeeds (6 week cycle for now - a day of steady feeding of carbohydrates to moderate my hormone levels) and try to be somewhat flexible with my diet with cheat meals sprinkled once per week of so (still working on moderation part).

Finally, if you haven't started with a regular exercise routine consider it. Regular and moderate exercise has been shown to promote weight maintenance but not that good as a substitute for weight loss (caloric restriction works much better and more efficiently; longer hours and higher intensities are need for exercise as a substitute). However, it does help with maintaining your metabolic hormone levels and limits the slow down attributed to the cutbacks as the body shed both fat and LBM. I try to limit my exercise to long steady state efforts to promote utilization of fats. I also monitor my cycling intensity so that as I become more fit, I increase my training stress. My goal is complete a century next season.

I would say, that having sodium show up would be quite important. Salt can sabotage weight loss in a big way and its good to let you know how much you are taking in. I am losing more steadily taking a slower weight loss with a larger calorie budget. I think when you eat too little you slow down your metabolism too much. Mine is around 1800 calories and I don`t feel deprived at all. When you feel deprived your body goes into starvation mode and the next thing you eat gets stored instead of utilised for fuel.

Hi there! I'm 5'3'' and now at 235 pounds. I eat 1800 calories a day, and go to the gym about 4 times a week (more if I actually make it on the weekend lol). I've heard a lot of people say that more calories helps them lose rather than less. I generally lose at least a pound a week, but it varies. Good luck! Friend request is on the way!

There's so much extra baggage attached to calories when you're a woman, and all of it is BS. Food is fuel, and you need a certain amount of it to keep your body running. The goal shouldn't be to survive on as few calories as humanly possible -- that's crazytown. The goal should be to be able to eat as many calories as you can while still losing weight. Most people have to drop their calories at least once while they're losing weight, because as you get smaller you need less fuel. If you start out at 1200, where are you going to go? You can't live on grass and sunshine

I average between 1400-1800 a day whether it's cardio or strength training day and I'm 5'2", 108 lbs. I'm just trying to maintain, though. Still manage to drop weight.

I'm 5'6" 134lbs and eat at 1700cals a day. On lifting days I give myself an extra 150 cals to play with if I'm super hungry, I leave them on the table (so to speak) if I don't need them. I have been losing weight consistently at this number for the last 4 months and using the IIFYM approach.

I think your diary for Tuesday looks great! Feel free to add me if you'd like

ETA: I think setting your calorie level close to your TDEE is great, but you want to be really accurate when logging your food - weigh & measure every little thing because it doesn't take a lot to put you back at or above your maintenance calories.