Really? That many calories?

So I've been having a hard time figuring out how many calories to have a day (I think it's because I eat pretty low carb and was letting my calories get a little more out of hand than I should have).  So I am 5'5" and 180 female who works out 4-5 times a week.  It says to maintain I can eat 2300 calories!  That seems like a lot!  I subtracted 500 and took me to 1700 a day.  I am going to try to stay at 1600.  Doesn't that still seem like a lot?  I mean I knwo I was eating way over that but I am going to start monitoring fat and calories as well.  What do you think?

I never get why people want to make it more challenging than it has to be.

If you were taking a class, and the professor said "All you need to do is show up every day, and you'll get an A," would you say "No - please grade me on all the homeworks and exams, and encorporate that into my final grade"?

If you are burning 2300 cals a day (assuming that's using an appropriate activity level and not double-logging exercise calories burned), why not just eat 1800 cals and lose a pound a week?

If for some reason, it doesn't work, and you aren't losing a pound a week, then try reducing your cals a little more. But there is no need to make it harder than it has to be.

It shouldn't be "eat less, move more" - it should be "move more, eat enough".

That 2300 calories is probably calculated with your activity level included, I assume?  And remember 2000 calories in healthy food wouldn't wreck your diet, that would be a good amount to sustain weight.  If you're looking to lose weight then yes subtrack 500 calories from your diet each day to lose a pound each week, but be carefull that you're getting enough protein for the amount of activity that you're engaged in.  You don't want to lose muscle mass over fat.

When I first started to workout at the gym about 1 year ago, I wasn't seeing any results, I mean any!  I was trying to lose some weight but I didn't add any extra calories to my diet to help sustain my workouts.  I was just burning off of my daily dieting calories, 1200.  I was putting myself into a starvation mode without even knowing it.  As soon as I was reading about making sure to eat enough if you're working out, I raised my calorie intake to 1500 a day and I started to slowly see results.  I'm more toned, dropped some fat, and workout FAR better than I did before because now I have energy to work out.  All because I started to eat more....ironic right?

A good thing to do jfourth is have differnt calorie expenditures depending on your level of activity for the day so you're body will never get MORE than what it needs or LESS.  On my weight training and cardio days (my hard days, or if I'm really active) I eat about 1800 calories.  On my cardio days or just more relaxing days I stay around 1500.  It's good to switch up your biggest meals and days so that your body doesn't get into a routine and keeps your metaolisism on its' feet :)  Good luck!

That's an excellent idea!  Yes the calories are with activity level included.  So you do like a zig zag type diet.  That sounds interesting; I think I will look more into that.  Thanks!!!

1700 calories/day seems completely reasonable for your stats.  When I started at CC, I weighed 179 (at 5'4 and in my early thirties).  I lost the first 25 pounds eating on average 1700 cals/day.  I then *increased* my calories along with my exercise and have now lost a total of 40 pounds in a year.

CC shows i should be eating aprox 1900 cals a day (to maintain),but thats not enough for me. i eat 3000 + !!! and i dont put on weight . i dont think anyone can calculate how active you are . i think i want to eat this much because i am active . when i tried to maintain it at 1900 i felt like i was still on a diet . "listen" to what your body tells you to do !