Thanks, your information has been very helpful!

You're welcome.

Glad to hear.

Starvartion wont end good. Take it form me. My friend thought, that he can get thin by not eating anything, only drinking water un eating dark bread and salads.
Well he was wrong because he had to go to the hospital and stay there for 1 month.

I'm right now weighing in at 363 lbs., and I have no idea how many calories I'm supposed to be eating. So far, I'm between 1,800 and 2,200 a day. Is that about right?

What kind of exercising are doing? I would say that with about 30min of exercise 5-6 days per week you could eat a bit more than that and still lose--like 2300-2600.

how are you keeping track of what calories you are currently eating.
How are you measusing said portions?

(ie - get yourself a decent kitchen scale and weigh and measure everything that goes in your mouth - and keep track at one of the 100s of free sites on the web like FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal -

it's tough to make adjustments unless youo know what you are currently taking in..

Spend some time with the stickied threads around this forum - you'll find a link to a formula that will give you an approximate starting point -for which you can make adjustments.

BUT _ BUT BUT - you really want to start as high onthe calorie range as possible and focus on 1 percent of your body weight loss a week - in a slow and steady process.. that way -wheny ou are down 100lbs or so -you've got a lot of wiggle room in which to play with calories.

At 1800 calories a day - you don't have much room to wiggle

Yeah, I've been using sparkpeople to track everything I eat.

I'll mess around with the stickies and find a decent formula on where to start like you suggested.

Thanks to who answered.

Hi there, okay I just seriously went through this whole sticky (I'm supposed to be working whoops oh well ) After reading everything, I'm still a little confused-don't hate me!

For the past 2 months, I've only been able to workout once or twice a week for 30 min (working two jobs, one full-time, one part-time does not help) and have been eating takeout often because I've been living in nyc. I go home though this coming monday and starting two days ago I put myself on a diet/exercise routine since i have four weeks left until returning to school. Before summer, I use to exercise a little more and eat a little better, but I am going to assume that my metabolism is working fine right now as I have been eating heartily these past two months, is that correct?

So now, starting two days ago, I want to put myself on a diet. I'm planning on working out 4 days a week (cardio and 3 days resistence). That means that maintenance for me, a person who is 5'5" and 130-135 lbs (don't have a scale here so we'll see what the damage is when i get home in a couple days) is 2200 calories or so. So, to lose weight, I just subtract 500 calories like the calculator websites tell me to, and that would be 1700 calories to lose weight...but i cannot seriously imagine that for someone who is so close to their goal weight (10 lbs off or so) that 1700 calories is low enough to lose weight. Someone set me at ease and tell me this is correct. Steve, are you out there?

For an average person doing exercise, I like to start with 12 calories per pound. You adjust accordingly based on feedback from your body and measurements.

Remember, where you initially set calories isn't all that important, simply b/c it's not contractual. If things aren't working, you change.

It's a process.

So that would mean an average of 1560 calories a day for me...I can handle that.

And while I have you hear, for losing "the last 10 lbs" how much cardio would you recommend because Self magazine had a routine of doing 28 min. cardio session 3 times a week (a kind of HIIT thing) but I reallllly can't imagine that's enough exercise paired with resistence training 3 times a week...aren't the last 10 lbs meant to be the hardest to get off? I don't want to overtrain either so does anyone have advice in regards to that? Any experience on what was best to get rid of the last stubborn 10 lbs?

I really appreciate this, thank you so much!

as steve said -it's a process - there's no hard and fast set of rules that are right for everyone.. you need to start somewhere and find what works for your body... starting is the key...

Steve - some of what I've read in this sticky seems to be opposite of other things I've seen you write about "starvation mode". Am I missing the point? In another thread it seemed that you were saying starvation mode does not really exist (unless you are actually starving). But here it seems you are saying that at least something similar happens when you drop calories.

I'm one of the ridiculously low calorie people - but that has always worked well for me - until this time around!

Also - thanks to the senior members and moderators for being patient with us newbies! There is a lot of information on this forum to get thru and I know it must get frustrating to answer the same questions over and over.

Well I am glad to have found this thread. 2 weeks ago I got sick of my fat (5'10, 225) self and began a kamikaze zero carb very low cal diet (banana for bfast, chicken & salad lunch, no dinner - one day my entire intake was one apple and a few beers at night when a buddy came over...). with help from an appetite suppressant and exercise 3x/week. Of course I have lost weight (about 10 lbs) but I am not a fun person to be around and want to start being more reasonable.

My question is how to do that, after reading this I feel like my body must be in extreme conservation/low metabolism mode so that if I go up to even 1800 cals tomorrow, I will gain it all back. I mean I am dying for a one-time splurge like a pizza or burrito or something, but am afraid that I will immediately gain 5 pounds back because of how extreme I have been.

Any guidance? Gracias!

As Mal stated, it's a process. There are no hard fast rules. Dig in and adjust accordingly based on bodily feedback. The important thing with the last few lbs is adequate protein and proper resistance training. Your body doesn't like getting lean and will do everything in its power to hold onto fat and shed muscle.

Tons of cardio is not the solution, at all, at this stage in the game.

It doesn't exist in the sense that most people tend to believe; as in, the starvation mode kicks on as soon as you cut calories so much and you start storing fat. I've talked about what the starvation response really is in many other threads, of which I'm sure you've read if you've done some searching.

Whenever we don't give our bodies the energy it needs to maintain itself, it is going to adjust accordingly through various metabolic and physiological adaptations. This it the starvation response.

What's your definition of 'works'?

For some, especially women, seeing the scale drop and seeing the inches drop is enough to be happy.

In my experience, this mentality leaves most unhappy in the end though. They were going for that lean look and the very low calorie approach just doesn't cut it. Muscle preservation takes a back seat with starvation dieting, especially in relatively light females, and when this is the case... getting lean is next to impossible.