Not sure how much I should be eating...

First, some stats: 17 years old, almost 18; about 5'8-9"; currently 145-147 lbs.; goal weight of 130 lbs.

Throughout my teenage years, except for a period of about six months sophomore year of high school when I was going to the gym 4-5 times a week (can no longer afford a membership, though), I have always been unhappy with my body. Though I am quite tall and in a perfectly healthy BMI range, it is quite evident by the way my body carries weight that I would look healthiest if I were to lose 10-15 pounds, or rather, lost fat while gaining muscle (I would much rather LOOK like I lost that amount of weight than just see that number on the scale; I realize the addition of muscle that I desire could actually result in a gain in weight). It has also been evident that despite my age and height, I do not have a very fast metabolism. While on a six-week road trip this summer, I was probably averaging 2500 calories a day, never more than 3000 and only a handful of times under 2000. Despite our last week spent in New York walking around all day and easily restricting my calories since every restaurant in NYC lists caloric values on their menu, I came home 152 lbs., the heaviest I have ever been and 10 pounds heavier than I usually maintain. I could see and feel the weight gain so it didn't come as a surprise, but I still felt and feel miserable about it. After a week of only being able to eat liquid foods (I had my wisdom teeth out) and now that I've been more closely monitoring what I've been eating, the scale reads 146 as of this morning.

So, I guess my question is this: How few is too few? Right now I have decided to aim for 1300-1500 calories depending on my activity level  for the day (1300 on days when I sit around doing mostly nothing; it is summer, after all ;P) and as I become more active I may increase this number. But is this not enough? I have read many times on the CC forums that this is not enough for someone my age but I just don't feel like I have the same metabloic rate as most teenagers. I haven't been starving at all at this current limit like many people who are restricting themselves to too few calories. But I'm still not sure about it.

CC says my burn rate is 1810 calories for a sedentary lifestyle and, assuming that rate is correct, at 1300-1500 I should be losing up to a pound per week, correct? I'm aiming to lose at a moderate pace; I would love to be at my goal weight a month from now when I move across the country to start college but that is unrealistic and would certainly be unhealthy. I'm looking to do this in the healthiest way possible (including being much more active than I am now).

Though I'm mostly confident about this range, I would still like to hear the advice and experiences of others.

well first off, you are 17 and CCs calculators are not made for you. this site has a better calculator..

http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/bodycomp/bmiz2.html

For your height 124-170 pounds is healthy. so you fall within the healthy range. 130 is at the very low end, and might be unrealistic since it's lower than you've ever naturally maintained. Of course, maybe prior to puberty you were lower...but generally speaking it might be a bit low if before you gained you weighed more than that.

When you plug your stats into the calculator these are the results:

1950 calories with no activity whatsoever, 2320 with less than 1 hour, 2660 with one hour, and 3240 with more than 1 hour.

I am positive that you get some activity, so even if you used the less than 1 hour recommendation you'd be burning 2320--if you subtract 500 calories from that to lose 1 pound per week, then you get about 1800. For anyone your age the absolute minimum is 1500, so the 1300-1500 calorie range is definitely not enough and will blunt your metabolism!!

I hope this helps! if you have any questions feel free to message me!!

Chrissy :)

Thank you. I will up my calorie range to 1500-1800 and see how my body responds.

As for the goal of 130, I am pretty sure it would be realistic for me to try to maintain that with a more active lifestyle. I can maintain 140 by just making sure I don't regularly overeat even if my activity level is almost zero. In the period that I was significantly more active about 1-2 years ago, I reached 130 after just a couple months, and that was without counting calories. I was really happy with a higher activity level and would love to introduce myself to that lifestyle again.