Need help determining daily calorie intake from the "experts"

Thanks so much in advance for any thoughts or help!

Background: 26 year old male, 6ft 1/2 in tall,  started at 238 lbs, now 230.5 lbs.  Former college fooball player (at about 265lbs) and with a goal weight right at or around 200 lbs.

I am having difficulty determining my best amount of calories to shoot for on a daily basis.  I have been in the 230-240 range for the past 8-9 years and honestly wouldnt be trying so hard to loose the weight other than I am military and my max weight requirement has been lowered from 237 to 207.

I would say my old diet was fairly healthy and I had no difficulty maintaining my weight with my normal routine of 3-4 days in the gym (30 min elliptical/running and 45 minutes free weights).  Before i found this site, i figured that if i kept that workout routine and cut my cals i would be good to go.  Well i shot for about 15-1700 a day and immediately lost 7 lbs in 7-8 days (water weight i know).   After this i have been maintaining at about 230 for about a week with the same regimine.  Through research on here it seems i might be in "starvation mode".

So...my question is this.  I put myself in the moderately active category because of exercise, but really i sit at a desk most of the day...so i seem to be somewhere in between the light and moderate activity range.  I am thinking of upping my daily target to about 2000 calories a day and seeing what that does for me, but would love some insight from all of you.  I have been eating healthy...and quite a bit actually to get to the 1500.

Thanks again and look foward to any and all responses.

I make your total calorie needs between 3150 (light exercise) and 3800 (moderate exercise).... So if we take a mid-point, I would suggest that your weight-loss intake should be somewhere between 2200 and 2500.  (The higher figure on the days when you do all the exercise.)  It's very normal to lose a lot Week 1, nothing Week 2 and then steadily lose from that point.  But starting too low can cause problems (crashing the metabolism is pretty common) so, if you can avoid making that mistake, do so.

Make your food intake work best for you by going with regular meals and snacks (don't skip meals), choosing natural wholefoods over processed/ready-made foods and getting plenty of fluids.  Increase calories by increasing portion-size and by adding some low-bulk, energy-dense foods into the mix e.g. nuts & raisins, olive oil, avocado.  That way you won't feel like you're eating until you're 'stuffed'.  You could reasonably expect to lose 1% of your total body weight on average each week.

I'm not all that knowledgeable about exercise unfortunately but I would also have thought that the free weights could mean you are more 'bulked up' than you'd want to be.  Muscle is very dense and heavy and the square-built 'rugby player type' is often the one quoted as being 'obese according to the BMI scale but very healthy'.   If you think about athletes, the long-distance runners are a different shape to shot-putters.  So if you switched your programme to be more running and elliptical and less weights you'd probably find your shape changed and that would ultimately make it easier to get the weight off.   Also... as well as the times when you work out at the gym, try to work half an hour of activity into the other days.   Regular, gentle exercise is more effective for weight-loss than vigorous sporadic exercise.

Good luck

gi-jane...thanks so much for the feedback...ill try upping the calories a bit and see how the next few weeks go.  Ill roll in that elliptical workout a bit more as well!

Thanks!

No problem.   I wanted to add... When you've got some time on your hands e.g. the weekend, try adding in some long-range exercise like hiking, long-distance swimming or cycling.  Short-burst, intense gym activities are OK as far as they go, but by far the best results I've had personally with weight-loss are when I've spent a continuous four or five hours on something less energetic (hill-walking in my case).  I've since seen it recommended by people who know a lot more about these things than I do.  

love the cycling...but its about 3 degrees outside right now, so thats out for a few months at least...haha.

anyone else in the 220-240 range that has a good calorie limit?

Thanks again!