How Many Daily Calories Do I Really Need?

I have been exercising almost every day.  Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday I go to the gym and lift weights.  On the other days I have been jogging.  I have been watching my diet and eating only 1,500 calories per day.  I should be losing weight. Yet my weight and measurements have not changed for a long time.

Part of the problem is that I really do not know how much I should be eating in a day.  There is so much conflicting information.  So I decided to search the internet for reasons why I might not be seeing results.  One common problem people experience when they start working out a lot is that they don't eat enough to fuel their body.  The body then hoards all calories and fat so that it will have energy for the next workout.

There is a concept called "reverse dieting" which helps to evaluate how many calories you need to eat in order to lose weight.  Basically you stop dieting and you eat normal for a couple of weeks until you start to gain weight.  At that point, you start dropping the number of calories that you consume each day until you reach a point where you are maintaining your weight.  Once you have reached that stage you can then start dropping the number of calories consumed by 100 per day until you start losing weight.

My LoseIt app was telling me that I should be eating 1,270 calories on days that I did not work out and up to 1,600 calories on days that I did work out.  It basically would add food calories to my day to make up for the exercise calories I was burning.

Most of the fitness articles were suggesting that I should be eating 2,400 calories per day.

I have found that I maintain my weight at 2,500 calories per day.

Now, it is time to start dropping the number of calories I eat per day until I find the zone where I start to lose weight.

I am adjusting the calories in my app to 2,400 per day for 1 week and I will see what that does for me.

I am also going to stop tracking my exercise in the app.  I feel that I make food choices based on how much I am exercising.  Maybe if I have it just showing total calories not net calories that it will alter my eating habits.