I am trying to watch how many calories I consume per day and have about 80 pounds I would like to lose. How many calories would I need to consume to lose around 2 pounds per week? I have been using fitday.com and it says that I am burning approx 3300 calories per day, but I don't see how that is possible. I weight 222.5, so what range of calories should I stay in?

Thanks!

{cal = 12 x bodyweight} is pretty standard for losing weight. So that would be 2664 if you weigh about 222. re-check weight once a week or 2 weeks (I'd recommend every 2 weeks) and adjust accordingly.

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Keep your body lean, your blood clean and your mind sharp. -Rollins

That seems a little high Naxis? At 180lbs. I'm pretty certain I'm not going to lose at 2160 calories. I've read that its more like 10 times to lose, 11 times to maintain and 12 times to gain? I'm not sure that I'd gain at 2160, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to lose there either?

I have heard (10 x body weight), but that seems really low to me and I'm not comfortable recommending that to anyone. (11 x bw) might be more realistic. (12 x bw) would probably be closer to maintenance and (15 x bw) for mass...? Sound more accurate? Although for me, at 130 pounds I know (15 x bw) = 1950 cal.... I would not gain mass on that. That's more like maintenance. (18 x bw) would do it...

Anyway to be totally accurate, you need to figure out how many calories you burn a day including activities and exercises and make sure your intake is 500 calories less than that. How's that?
http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/biggrin.gif



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Keep your body lean, your blood clean and your mind sharp. -Rollins

Heehee - works for me. Thats what I said on the weight loss board as a response to this very post. I'm sure it depends on your body fat percentage and weight, etc. You already have a low body fat % and are going to need more calories to support that than someone like me, who doesn't anymore =)

I don't think you can really work it out in any formula. Alot depends on your activity level, body composition, genetics, life style etc. For instance, I weigh 180lbs but my maintenance requirements are about 3500 cals which is about 20 x bw. The only real way workout your daily reqs is to keep a food diary and adjust your caloric intake over a few months until you are maintaining your weight, keeping your activities as normal as possible. You can than raise or lower (or maintain) your intake according to your goals. In my experience, after a while you get to know how your body reacts and can pretty accurately guesstimate your personal needs.