How many calories do you eat?

Less than 500.

2000-3000 zig zag.

2700 on training days.
1900 on rest days.

Zig zagging of calories does nothing for the metabolism. Cycling of carbs and fats, does nothing for the metabolism. This is only used to create a weekly deficit. You eat when you train, you eat less when you don't.

1570.

No man should be eating 1500 calories a day.

If hes 4'11" maybe?
=D

I have heard that your can take your goal weight and multiply it by 10... so if you want to weigh 130 you should eat 1300 per day... However, MFP has me eating less than 10x my goal weight, but I am super tall so that is prob why... I would follow what they recommend though. Because I did the whole eating super low calories before and it worked great! until it slowed my metabolism instead of increasing it and made it really difficult to keep the weight off and now to lose it again...

I have two kids (6 and 4), and have my activity set to 'lightly active'. So I don't count all the cleaning, chasing, walking to/from school (when its not too cold or snowy!), grocery shopping, etc. I'm set to lose 1lb per week and am at 1390cal. I usually hit about that give/take 100cal. I've lost 12lbs so far, and when I started I was actually given 1460. When I hit goal and decided to keep going, it lowered my calories by 70 per day. I was happy with how things were going, so I haven't been too worried about it. I'm using the calorie counter more as a guide and a reminder to pay attention to what I'm eating (I can be a real mindless eater, not even realizing it until after).

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think many have their activity level at 'sedentary' so get the low calorie allowance as they can then log things like cleaning and shopping, etc and eat back those calories.

1420, and usually half of the burned cals back

I am 5'11 and currently 163 pounds. I'm following the Spike diet plan and based on that I'm eating 1200 calories 3 days a week, 1500 three days a week, and 3000 on my spike day.

Less than 500.

Oh honey, why torture yourself. You are young and you don't have a ton to lose, you NEED to eat more than this, bet you lose quicker if you up your calories...doesn't make sense I know, but it seems to work that way. Also as soon as you begin to eat normally you will undo all the work you did ..if there is a medical reason ok, I guess, but please consider eating a bit more...Just a thought.

First of all, let me say that I believe this is the wrong place to be asking this question. For the amount of weight loss you want, and your current weight, the best person to answer this question is a registered dietician who has access to your specific goals, current weight, nutritional status, and medical history. You can easily get a referral from your primary care physician or look into programs through your state or county department of health.

Your calorie intake is heavily dependent on your goals, current weight and activity level. Based on what you described, I don't see you actually exercising in a way that would be advantageous to your goals. In other words, you aren't building muscle or working cardiovascularly enough to promote weight loss by increasing your metabolism.

So, those 1430 calories need to be highly efficient for you. 1200 calories is plenty of food when you are not including a rigorous exercise plan. But at your weight, 1400 calories is likely sufficient for a while as well. The problem with 1200 calories is that is the MINIMUM number of calories possible to intake and still receive appropriate nutrition - assuming that EVERY calorie is of high nutritive value (i.e. no baked lays or sugar free cookies - just pure, good, whole food).

If you don't want to increase your exercise at this point (and honestly, it's been shown that exercise actually reduces arthritic pain, so that's not really a viable excuse), I'd make sure that 1. I'm eating no more than 1400 cal/day; 2. That absolutely no more than 30% of my calories are coming from fat (and do not go over 30% in protein either, with 20% recommended by dieticians so as not to screw up your kidneys as those high protein/low carb diets will do); 3. Eat 5 times a day - 3 meals, 2 snacks keeping your meals around 300-400 cal and your snacks at 100-200; and 4. Switching to non-processed foods and increasing your natural, vegetable intake.

It's important to remember that EVERY body is different and reacts differently to food (i.e. therefore, the number of calories you need, etc.). But the one thing that is constant is that if you eat more calories than you burn on a daily basis you'll be overweight and if you don't, you can be fit and healthy.