1000 calorie deficit NOT for people with healthy BMI

edyta,

I can only tell you what I get from the calculators, this is close to what it should be but you may, in fact, need tweaking.

Considering your BMI (already in the lower half of healthy, which is fine, but will make it extremely difficult to lose weight for you) your RMR or maintenance calories should be around 1900 IF you have a somewhat active lifestyle. If you are completely sedentary in your lifestyle, then 1750 or so calories will keep your current weight.
You are kind of the perfect example of what I am talking about. Your body thinks it's fine. It doesn't want to lose more. So to do so you have to battle for every pound, in your case, expecting to see any tangable weight loss in less then a month is not very realistic. A couple of weeks of doing anything isn't going to give you results because the proportions and percentages you are trying to change are so small that it's not really measureable with most home equipment. I think at what you are currently trying (1550) you should be ok, maybe even 100 or 150 calories higher might be better.
I want to stress that the point of this site is to be healthier, not to necessarilly lose weight. For many, the two are the same, but for someone like you, they aren't.
If you want my opinion edyta, I would completely forget about weight loss as IMHO you are fine where you are, I would, instead focus on body fat % and muscle tone. If you goal is to shrink a size or two or modefy some of your curves, at this point that won't happen with healthy weight loss for you, it will happen by shaping your body, your muscles, and your lean mass.

I'm glad you replied to this because I believe that you are on the right track, which is good to see, but I also believe you can take it a bit further then you are.

Just my humble opinion. :happy:
Best luck to you!

-Banks

If I can jump in here. . .
I've only started to really change my body fat % since I've switched to maintenance calories. I recently wore my HRM all day, on a particularly inactive day and came in at 1700, which is more than this site says I'm at while sedentary (the whole muscle mass making everything a bit higher thing, I hope).

You must feed your muscles to build them. I'm not all pumped-up or anything, but my legs now look defined instead of just "big", and my arms are starting to look buff. (I'm actually looking forward to summer for the first time, well, ever)

For those of you ladies "on the last ten pounds" (Or five) please consider switching to maintenance and concentrating on your exercise. It was only after I decided "well, maybe this is a healthy weight for me" and quit concentrating on the "magic number" that I got to the "magic number." Concentrate on adding muscle to your body, and you will lose inches, I promise!:flowerforyou:

HERE HERE VIV! Good call. I would totally agree with that. :happy:

Okay Banks and Viv,

Not to confuse the issue - but I have been concentrating on exercise and balancing my diet better (I had no idea how off the mark i was on my carbs and protein). My question/problem/confusion is what I ran into yesterday - high number of calories needed to still be consumed after exercise but the amount of protein and carbs were very low. So I need to find foods that were high in calories but relatively low in either carb or protein. (Banks you suggested pb, which I just cannot eat albeit Un-American - I hate PB!)

Sooooo, i am on a search today for website that have food listing that will help solve this problem.

BTW - for all of you skeptics, nay-sayers - I have been following the advise of these wonderful people for two months and I am in the best shape i have been in a very long time and the weight is coming off (I don't care about the number - my clothes don't fit and that makes me feel better!)

hmm, pm, so if carbs and protein are your issue, then I would say that any type of nut is good, but some have less fat then others, so definitely go to a calorie site like www.calorieking.com and check them before you buy. ahh lets see....high carb low fat high protein. I got it, things like yogurt, 1% or Skim milk, ahh 75% reduced fat cheddar cheese from cabot farms is great for that. Um, thinking...
as for meat, both chicken and turkey are usually high protein with low fat.

Thank you for posting this!
:happy: :happy:
I have about 10lbs to lose, not exactly sure since I have a morbid fear of the scale, but that's what I kind of would like to see. I want every ounce of that to be fat - preferably on my tummy and inner thighs, but hey, I'll take what I can. Right now I am in a very healthy range, I think I'm at a 22-23 BMI. I'm not sure of my body fat, but I'd assume its around 24-25. I had it checked 3 years ago and I'm a little bigger than I was and it was like 22, so I figure that's about where it is.
The site tells me that I have a BMR of 1400, which shocked me because that seems really low to me. But I was thinking that if I ate 1200, its only a 200 calorie deficit.
I'm starting to realize that all this time when I thought I've been taking in enough calories to burn fat, it may not be enough and I might be gaining it? I've noticed that I've lost an inch or so, but I'm kind of hitting a plateau here.
I think I'm going to try changing my settings for a month or so and see what I can do.

Is this a good assessment, or am I completely off?

Hard to say without knowing numbers, but I never have a problem with someone eating a little more as a trial, my only fear usually comes from eating too little as a trial. Gaining a pound or two isn't the end of the world, but losing kidney function or partial liver function could be!
At this point for you it could be as simple as your carb/fat/protein ratios and how much weight training you are doing. When you are at these points in your exercise/diet life, you may, in fact, benefit from a session or two with a good certified trainer. It can be tough when you are here, the tweaks become much smaller, and the timelines grow much longer at this point, everything must be thought of in a much more long term scale then just straight weight loss.

Thank you for posting this!
:happy: :happy:
I have about 10lbs to lose, not exactly sure since I have a morbid fear of the scale, but that's what I kind of would like to see. I want every ounce of that to be fat - preferably on my tummy and inner thighs, but hey, I'll take what I can. Right now I am in a very healthy range, I think I'm at a 22-23 BMI. I'm not sure of my body fat, but I'd assume its around 24-25. I had it checked 3 years ago and I'm a little bigger than I was and it was like 22, so I figure that's about where it is.
The site tells me that I have a BMR of 1400, which shocked me because that seems really low to me. But I was thinking that if I ate 1200, its only a 200 calorie deficit.
I'm starting to realize that all this time when I thought I've been taking in enough calories to burn fat, it may not be enough and I might be gaining it? I've noticed that I've lost an inch or so, but I'm kind of hitting a plateau here.
I think I'm going to try changing my settings for a month or so and see what I can do.

Is this a good assessment, or am I completely off?

Hard to say without knowing numbers, but I never have a problem with someone eating a little more as a trial, my only fear usually comes from eating too little as a trial. Gaining a pound or two isn't the end of the world, but losing kidney function or partial liver function could be!
At this point for you it could be as simple as your carb/fat/protein ratios and how much weight training you are doing. When you are at these points in your exercise/diet life, you may, in fact, benefit from a session or two with a good certified trainer. It can be tough when you are here, the tweaks become much smaller, and the timelines grow much longer at this point, everything must be thought of in a much more long term scale then just straight weight loss.

I am 5'8 and I guess 145ish. I feel like my BMR should be a little higher than 1400.
Its taken me a long time to realize that not everyone is meant to be a size 2. I am finally accepting my body. I am not accepting however that my abs are extremely strong (I've been told by a couple of trainers that I have a very strong core) and they do not show on my body. All of my other muscles look fairly toned. I see definition that I used to not see, and I'm loving it. But my abs are being shy and aren't really wanting to be viewed.
I know that fat loss can't be targeted, so I'm still doing my cardio (I run for about 5 miles 2-3 times a week and I do a bootcamp class which makes us do sprints and whatnot) along with weights.
I guess I just want to know what else I can try. I'm going to up my caloric intake and continue to work my butt off.

any ideas?