Thanks again for your concern, Dina, but I've been doing this for going on 3 years now and I think I know my body pretty well. According to Fitday, my basal (based on age, gender, etc...) is 1,300 and that is the point that I try to not go below. I know from experience that if I were to eat 1,900 calories a day, I would either gain or for sure not lose; 1,800 is the max I can do for weight loss, but for maintainance, I will most likely be more in the area of 2,000. In the past on low fat diets, I managed to gain on 1,200 calories per day, so my metabolism is fairly slow; add to that perimenopause (I'm 42), PCOS and diabetes and it makes weight loss fairly difficult (read what Dr. Bernstein has to say about PCOS and weight loss at his website or his newest edition of his book). Most days, I'm around 1,400 to 1,500 and since I've been paying more careful attention to calories and staying in that range, I've been losing pretty steadily (9 pounds since Thanksgiving), so my body seems pretty happy with what I'm doing right now as well. I'm getting adequate protein, more than adequate RDA of every vitamin and mineral that Fitday lists and from the way my body is responding, adequate calories as well.
My current goal is listed as 145, but I'm 5' 3", so could probably go well below that (probably down to 125). I'm shooting for 145 for now and will decide when I get there whether or not I want to lose more based on how I look and feel. I may be perfectly happy at that weight or I may want to lose a bit more. Won't know until I get there. My goal is really more of a size (10/12) than a weight.
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it's advisable to start with a certain caloric intake based on your current weight, and then gradually cut it down while losing weight.
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And this is exactly what I have done. I lost pretty well at 1,800 calories when I weighed 260. I don't weigh 260 anymore.
I'll have to find the post, but someone e-mailed the Atkins center asking how many calories per day (based on body weight) and the response was that a person could safely go down as far as 10x their
goal weight as long as their goal weight was a reasonable one.
I've also calculated my minimum protein requirements via Protein Power and lean body mass and I make sure to get my minimum amount (about 75 g per day, usually between 80 and 100). It's normal to lose some lean body mass as you lose weight simply because your muscles don't have to carry such a great load anymore, but eating adequate protein to support your lean body mass should keep that to a minimum.