I am in maintenance mode so my calories are 1750. My doc told me eat 1200 calories a day. I could only do that for a short period of time because I get grouchy and lethargic eating 1200 or fewer calories. I am ascribing to the thought process that I should eat the maintenance calorie intake for the wieght I want to be at so that is where my calories are set right now.

I had a point in time that I was very diligent about everything I ate, calories around 1200 i guess but I wasn't on this site actually tracking. My mind at that time was if something wasn't nutritionally worth the calories I did not eat it because it wasn't worth it. I exercised 60 minutes a day 5 days a week. I lost 30 pounds in three months like that with the help of my band of course. Those three months took me out of the 200's (my band was the tightest it has ever been). I started tracking shortly after that and I stayed around 1200 (doctor recommended) but would bump it up to around 1300 calories.

1200 is what I shoot for. Some days when I work out extra hard I go over that.

I am no longer logging my calories- I hope to keep maintaining without the logging. When I was logging, I tried to stay at about 1200 calories a day. I did not eat my exercise calories back. I also exercise 60 minutes 5-6 days a week. The closer I got to my goal, the harder it was to lose.