Amount of Calories

From all my research, I find that no one recommends you go under 1200 calories per day. If you do, the weight loss won't be sustainable. You need to start eating now in a way that you can mantain the rest of your life. After you are at goal weight you can slowly add calories back to see where you get your best balance, usually around 1400 - 1800 per day.

One pound = 3500 calories. If you want to lose 2 pounds per week (recommended by most doctors) then you need to cut your calorie consumption by 1000 calories per day.

If I calculate my daily caloric requirement, I need 3654 calories per day to maintain my weight. If I want to lose 2 lbs per week, I need to go down to 2654 calories per day. Of course (and herein lies the problem to some extent). If I recalculate my daily caloric requirement in a month after I've loss 8 pounds, the result will be lower won't it. So, with this method, you must either start out with a lower amount of calories per day, or you must continually adjust it to a smaller amount as you get smaller.

To calculate daily required caloric need:

Body Weight x 11 = A
Body Weight x 1/3 ==Y
Y x the number of hours you don't sleep = B
A+B = Total required calories

For example for me:
220 x 11 = 2420
220 x 33 = 72.6, then 72.6 x 17 (if I get 7 hours sleep per night) = 1234.2

1234 + 2420 = 3654
This just really annoys me because there is NO WAY I eat 3600 calories per day, but is what I would need to sustain my weight - and if you get exercise regularly, that would change the number of course.

If you would like to determine how many calories you are burning, follow this link and you can learn the numbers. You can figure this into your scheme. For example, you could eat 500 calories less per day and work off 500 calories per day (this is the recommended way).
Go to this link:
http://primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/jumpsite/calculat.htm

Hope this helps!