Calories?

I'm wondering if there's a realistic way to figure out how many calories is best for me in general.
When I first entered my info to set up my profile, it told me in order to lose half a pound a week I'd need to reduce my calories to around 1500. The BMR calculator on here,, says I'd burn 1322 just staying in bed-- and that's not taking muscle into consideration. I find it hard to believe that I only burn 200 calories throughout the day. I read a figure the other day that said someone of my size and general activity level needs about 2200 cal to maintain. I'm just not sure how to figure out what's accurate without going to the doctor. I'm active but I only add calories for moderate to intense exercise.
Any ideas?

http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm

That is a great site to figure out your total daily energy expenditure. TDEE. A woman should never eat fewer than 1200 calories acday, or 1000 calories below the TDEE figure. Most do veery well eating 500 calories below TDEE. This site is confusing because it adjusts based on what exercise you log so the number always is changing. That is fine, but I prefer knowing my TDEE and working off that number. TDEEtakes your exercise level into account so you don't change your daily calorie limits based on what exercises you did.

What you need a day on this site is based on this formula

To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

The deficit is taken from that, then you add in your exercise and this site has it set up so that you eat back the calories you burn from exercise (even though there is a lot of debate about that). Personally I set mine to moderately active and don't add in my exercise calories.

http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm

Thanks for the site! So I'm not as "off track" as I was worried about. It was also interesting to see the different breakdowns of how much I should weigh. That's a whole other confusing realm, esp bc it doesn't factor in muscle.

Use the right hand side to get an ideal weight based on desired %body fat. That takes into account, your lean body mass.