Your body's thoughts on calories

Well, I have recently seen many people questioning the idea of eating your goal calories and/or eating exercise calories so I thought I would offer up a quick reminder for both the newbies on here who are confused about caloric intake and some of our more seasoned members who may have forgotten. I'll be as brief as possible. (sorry if this gets long, I'll break it up to make it easier to read)

1)
Every single person on here loses weight differently, but there are a few common factors everyone. The first is that we all have a metabolism, governed by how much energy we give it, how active we are, genetic makeup, and the type of energy we give it. With that in mind MFP has a relatively easy to use goals calculator that will give you the amount of food you should eat to lose the weight you desire and become more healthy.

2)
The relationship to your BMI (as flawed as that measurement is) and how much you can lose is real and governs much of your weight loss. People with a BMI over 30 (classified as obese) can lose weight faster then people that are under that number (generally speaking, see number 1) 2 lbs a week or more is realistic for obese people. Trying to lose 2 lbs a week for someone with a BMI under 30 is much more difficult, as well as much more time consuming.

3)
Starvation mode is REAL. It can and does happen. You should keep close tabs on where your BMR calories is. If you are under the obesity level then please try to stay (at a minimum) at your BMR. The goals calculator WILL account for weight you want to lose, don't think you can up the stakes by eating less, it doesn't work. And if you exercise, realize that you are creating a larger deficite, and make sure you eat your exercise calories.

4)
(This is one I see all the time) If you are close (say within 25 lbs or so) of your goal weight, 2 lbs a week is probably unrealistic. The human body knows where it's equalibrium is, attempting to go below it is a difficult, and frustrating process, 2 lbs a week (what ever you may think) is a drastic strategy for someone near their goal and usually doesn't happen. As you approach your goals, slow down your attempt at loss, try for 1 lb a week or less, it will give your body time to adjust it's chemistry more gradually, keep you healthy, and lessen your frustration.

5)
1200 calories is a number that doctors and nutritionists have made up based on averages. It's not a line in the sand. Your starvation calories depends on your body. For me that line is somewhere around 2000 calories, for a really small woman, it could be 1000, Generally it's somewhere around 1000 calories less then your maintenance weight. But being dynamic systems, some of our bodies can tolerate more or less. Be smart about your weight loss, use your common sense, if you're not losing weight and your at or below a 1000 calorie deficite, then think logically and up your calories a little, and keep upping them until you see improvement.

6)
Lastly, the human body has a 5 lb swing daily. That means that on any given 24 hour period yo can go from 5 lbs above your "real" weight to 5 lbs below. Due to water weight, and waste we can swing quite a bit. The scale is a generalist at best, good for an Idea of where you are, but not very good at calculating exact measurements. I generally recommend weighing yourself no more then once every 2 weeks, at the same time, same day every week. Use other measurements along with this, I.E. size measurments, Body Fat %, and over all fitness level to make up the difference.

NOTE: I'm not a doctor or a certified nutritionist, but I have done a large amount of research on this, and have spoken with my doctor and 2 separate nutritionists on this topic. NONE of which has ever recommended a 2 lb a week weight loss without doctor supervision. Even after direct questioning about this they all agreed that 2 lbs a week is an EXTREME stragegy and, for most people who are in the healthy BMI range, an unrealistic goal to set (with some obvious exceptions, like an extremely large person overall)


I hope this clears some stuff up. also see Viviakay's post on general caloric intake, it pretty much says all there is to say about this.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions