I'm currently at ~1450 max per day, but lately I've been ending up around 1,000 naturally since I eat two meals and don't snack. (I prefer big meals over small ones, so I only eat twice.) Those extra calories I just kind of use as leverage for dinner in case it's more than ~500-700 per serving.

I don't have a Fitbit, but I do make an effort to exercise via taking long routes by foot and whatnot. I've only been able to weight train once in the last three weeks (rip progress) due to school and my friend not being available, but I don't feel like I work enough off to justify eating them back via an extra helping of something. I just kind of also use them for leverage on dinner.

The reason I keep things to leverage is because I'm a 19 year old college freshman and not financially independent. I still eat dinner with the family, and half of the time it's not healthy food. That's how I ended up here in the first place haha. That, and since we don't always follow a recipe, a lot of guess work is involved. I prefer to over estimate. Were I able to 100% plan all of my meals, I would probably eat up to at least 1300 a day to hit my macro goals.

Edit: I should probably mention my weight with regards to how much I'm eating. My last weigh in had me at 216.5 pounds. I plan to adjust my intake every 10 pounds, so if you weigh more of course you can eat more, and if you weigh less vice versa. Some actually helpful information: my TDEE is about 2050 or so, which has me at about a 600 calorie deficit per day minimum. I'm seeing some pretty great results so far

My calorie goal is quite low compare to a lot people I have seen lately ... its only 1220 cals and that is to lose 1.5 lbs per week. I try not to eat back the exercise calories, but sometimes I do if I am hungry and maybe once a week I go over.

In Jan I started by targeting 2k/day and dialed it down twice.
My current calorie goal is 1600-1700 per day.

My stretch target is 1% loss weekly, the upper limit per my reading.
I'm actually losing about 0.8% weekly, I'm pretty happy with that.

I'm set at 1200. I am generally more focused on meeting my macro goals though since with PCOS, managing insulin response is a lot more significant for me.

I have mine set at 1500 per day. I try to think of it as a range from 1400 to 1600, BUT it bugs me to see my numbers in the red. So I mostly settle for 1500. My resting rate 1900 to 2000, 1500 gives me a decent deficit while not feeling like I have to worry about every calorie. I am of the mindset that this is for life, so I want to eat in a sustainable way for me.

bmeadows380 wrote: »

I'm at 1650 right now. That's about 150 to 200 less than what most calorie intake calculators tell me I should be eating, but I've found that the calculated values aren't accurate to my body-makeup and chemistry, and that if I drop about 100 lbs beneath their minimum, I succeed in steady weight loss. Plus, if I have a day where I'm not 100% accurate in tracking or eat over a bit, I know it's not going to hurt.

I was trying to meet my macros, but found it to just not work for me - when I tried to get enough protein in, I was consistently going over my calorie goal - protein sources are unfortunately also high calorie sources! So I'm moving instead to focusing on eating lots of vegetables, some fruits, get some lean meat and dairy in to try to at least get decently close to my protein goal, and to strictly limit sweets to once in a while as a treat.

Same with me, instead of focusing on specific macros I try to eat healthy and be full. Veggies are way up for the bulk. I find I eat lots of cheese as snack food, especially string cheese.

I used the sum of 3 different macro/calorie calculators...Scooby http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ IIFYM https://www.iifym.com/iifym-calculator/ and Calorie King http://www.calorieking.com/interactive-tools/how-many-calories-should-you-eat/ .
I added up all three of the results then divided by three to get my calorie count. My food diary is public so you are welcome to add me and look it over. I am really honest. If I eat it, then its on the diary...sometimes it isn't pretty, but being honest with what you are really consuming is the key to moving forward on your goals. Also you don't want to strip your calories down more than 500-1000 calories less than what you ate to get where you are. As you lose 5-10lbs you will want to do the calculations again, and you need somewhere to go. If you have already cut your calories down too low you have no calories to cut out when your weight loss stalls.
Right now I have to eat 2500 calories a day to maintain my current weight. So I've cut that down to 1789. The only time I feel ok eating more than that is when I go to the gym or workout, but that is because right after I workout I do have to eat something (usually a protein bar).

dungeonmarm wrote: »

My calorie goal right now is 1650. I have MFP set to 2 lbs to week and I update my calorie goal every time I hit a new low weight. I do it that way because I find a reduction of 10 calories every few days is easier than a bigger reduction all at once less frequently.

I don't track calorie expenditure from normal activity, only my on-purpose exercise. I am willing to eat into my exercise calories but try not to eat them all back.

Hey how do you update the calorie goal, with weigh in a? This is something I want to be doing

vvJessicavv wrote: »

dungeonmarm wrote: »

My calorie goal right now is 1650. I have MFP set to 2 lbs to week and I update my calorie goal every time I hit a new low weight. I do it that way because I find a reduction of 10 calories every few days is easier than a bigger reduction all at once less frequently.

I don't track calorie expenditure from normal activity, only my on-purpose exercise. I am willing to eat into my exercise calories but try not to eat them all back.

Hey how do you update the calorie goal, with weigh in a? This is something I want to be doing

Go to "Update diet/fitness profile" from the Settings menu, and click the "Update profile" button. It will create a new calorie goal for you. You don't even have to change anything; it automatically populates with your most recent weight.