Calorie Intake Question...

I think you're pretty safe going with whatever MFP recommends + your exercise calories.

try varying your caloric intake from day to day.
example...
on some days 1200 calories
other days 1500 calories
and i have gone as low as -900 calories
try this and aim for a weekly AVERAGE of 1200 calories

i am doing this myself in the hopes i can tick my body into thinking it is not going into starvation mode .
because when this 'starvation mode' happends to me i either don't lose weight or gain weight.

also, once a week i treat myself to a real dinner i do this by eating less calories the day before and the day after. but i still watch what i consume.

currently i am trying this with 1 hr+/- of exercise and is going well so far. before i joined this website i had already lost 8 lbs and now being able to keep a Food Diary on-line is a help....better then pen and paper for me

the "experts" say try losing 1-2 lbs per week for long term weight loss

on your myfitnesspal.com account
click on the 'home' tab
click on 'goals'
and in this part of the website it can give you some ideas on caloric intake and change as needed.
i check it often as a reference

sorry for the blabber

good luck---vw

Sounds right. you can test it by using other websites. You're burning between 1500 and 2000 cals a day probably but if you told MFP you want to lose 2 lbs a week then you need a 7000 calorie deficit a week which means 1000 a day. so if you were burning at most 2000 a day at rest, subtract 1000 for your daily deficit and you are at 1000 but MFP (and anyone else) will tell you not to go below 1200, and you really shouldnt.

The turth is, this country just eats too much. We are accostomed to huge portion sizes of high calorie foods and we think that is normal....but its not. Are bodies really only need about 1500 a day to survive, especially those of us who are sedentary. You really have to eat the right foods and the right portions sizes in order to be satisfied with that 1200. Most days I go over (and pay for it by not losing fast).

BTW...I don't lose when I eat my excersise calories. Some people do, but I would play around with your calorie intake and see what works for you.

So all we can do is assume a few things, and go off the BMI and BMR of MFP.

As flawed as BMI is, it's still a starting point, and yours is around 27, which means while you have some excess fat, it's not dominating your body, so 2 lbs a week is probably too much to attempt. Add to that your BMR, which is around 1680, and you have a good starting point. Remember, BMR is what your body needs for calories as a bare minimum to fuel your body, and BMR doesn't take into account ANY activity (we're talking ANY activity, I.E. breathing, walking, thinking, using the TV remote, essentially as if you were in a coma). The only people who should effectively be below BMR are people with lots and lots of excess body fat to make up the calorie difference, you're not in that catagory, so I wouldn't go very far below this.

Based on these things, and where your weight is, I would say that anything below 1650 is low for you. Remember, just because MFP offers a 2 lb per week option, doesn't mean it's the right amount for you.

Something I would recommend is to go get a profressional Body Fat % analysis done (those scales are very inaccurate, so I wouldn't count on them), if you have a BF% then you know about how much fat you can safely lose, which can guide your weight loss strategies far better than BMI (which is a VERY rough estimate at best).