Real calories burned estimated; Apple Watch?

How fast are you losing? Add those calories to what you're eating (using the 3500 calories = 1 pound assumption) to get an estimate of actual maintenance. Go with that for long enough to see whether you're maintaining, adjust again if needed.

I can't even make a guess, without knowing what you're losing. For example, if a pound a week on average, eating 1900-2000, then first guess at maintenance calories is 2400-2500, and go from there. 🤷‍♀️

I don't know why 3000-3300 would be *impossible*. Unusual, sure, but not impossible. I maintain around 2200-2300, probably, at 5'5", 125ish pounds, sedentary outside of exercise, maybe 60'x6 days exercise during Summer & much less in Winter, at age 65, based on 5+ years of logging experience (admittedly unusually high for my demographic). But you're younger, taller, heavier, and more active.

Hamiltonfamily2018 wrote: »

@AnnPT77 in 4 weeks I lost 6-9 pounds but that was “beginner loss” I’ve been inactive for a year in the “Covid cave”, but before that (Pre-Covid) was even more active then I am now- I decided I needed to take a more realistic relaxed approach this time around.

I suppose it may just be a matter of tracking a few months and trail and error to get a solid estimate.

I assume you're young enough to still be premenopausal, so I think you really want to be comparing weights at the same relative point in two different monthly cycles, but also ignoring the first week or two if those weeks look like outliers in terms of water weight. So, you might need another few weeks' data ideally.

Right now, with 6-9 pounds in 4 weeks, that'd be (super rough estimate with water weight weirdness probably in there) 1.5-2.25 pounds a week loss, times 3500 calories per pound is 5250-7875 calories deficit weekly, divide by 7 to get 750-1125 deficit daily. If eating 1900-2000, that suggests maintenance would be somewhere in the 2650-3125 range . . . granting that that could be way off if water fluctuations right up front were kind of extreme.

That's all assuming I did the arithmetic right, which in my case is always an iffy proposition. 😆 Still, I think that's enough to illustrate the principle, I hope?

BTW: Why would you necessarily cut if you reach a plateau? I admit, if your loss gradually slows and you think you've hit maintenance, that would be the right answer. But with as little to lose as you probably have (you didn't mention goal weight), it doesn't seem like you'll have some giant calorie needs drop from . . . what, maybe 30-40 pounds loss? If a sudden-ish plateau, maintenance break might be a better plateau breaker, or use the time-honored "patience" strategy.

For that matter, I wouldn't assume you'll necessarily hit a plateau (3+ weeks without scale loss), especially if you you're pursuing a slow loss rate. I never plateaued through 50-60 pounds of loss, and it wasn't super slow. It's pretty individual. Why borrow trouble from the future? I admit, I think it's a Bad Plan to *create* trouble for the future, but you're not targeting super fast loss, so I don't see you as creating future trouble here.

Best wishes!