Any advice? I am new to understanding calories

I am new to eating healthy and trying to loose the weight.  I have been reading a lot about calorie counting and I am a little confused where to start.

I actually just began eating 3 meals a day.  I was only eating 1 big meal and maybe 1 small meal a day and I was packing on the pounds.  I started seeing a dietician and started incorporating healthy foods and 3 meals a day with a snack in the morning or afternoon.  I lost 10 pounds and now I am at a plateau not loosing anymore.  I want to start paying more attention to the calories I take in so I can try to lower them to loose more weight.

The only problem I am having is trying to understand my baseline right now.  I don’t know if I am still eating too little calories or too much and I don’t want to cut my calories down if I am eating too little as it will just cause more weight gain or being stuck where I am now.

I will see my dietician again in about a month and a half where I can ask her this question but I thought I would see if anyone else has run into this before and hear their thoughts.

I am at 232 lbs and I am eating about 1500 - 1600 calories a day now.

I've been stuck at plateaus an infinite amount of times. I usually look at 3 different things that I can change to start losing weight again. 1) Amount of calories 2) Make-up of calories 3) Exercise.

1. Try lowering your calorie intake about 50-100 calories for a couple of days and see if you start losing weight again. However, if your doctor recommended your number of calories, I would first ask him/her about lowering it if you aren't losing weight.

2. What exactly are you eating? Just because you are limiting your calorie doesn't mean you will lose weight. If you are only eating junk food, then you won't lose weight even if you are eating within your calorie limit.  Try adding more fruits/veggies and reducing your fats and sugars for a couple of days and see if anything changes.

3. This is the #1 reason I get stuck. Not exercising. Make sure you are exercising for at least 30 minutes a day. Whether it is cleaning, walking, swimming, etc. You would be surprised at how much exercise affects your weight loss.

Hope that helps.  

Thanks for the ideas. 

you are smart not to decrease your calories. i wouldn't eat less than you are eating now. how much activity are you getting?