I found a great website for determining your recommended daily calorie intake goal….it gives several options for your activity level….and it shows results for maintaining weight, losing fat, and extreme fat loss.  It also provides a 7-day zigzag goal for “calorie cycling”. (Calorie cycling provides same amount of calories per week, but ‘tricks’ your body by constantly changing daily calories. This helps to prevent or break plateaus.)

I’m a believer in calorie cycling.  I’m a believer that you can blow your diet one day without negative consequence.  Like last Friday when Jim and I went out to dinner and I ate 2 pieces of bread, a caesar salad, 2 steak fillet medallions, 2 stuffed mushrooms, 2 stuffed shrimp, and a piece of chocolate mousse cheesecake for dessert!  Yeah- diet BLOWN that day.

Anyway, I was looking for a calorie calculator because….I’m still losing weight.  I’m no longer on a meal replacement plan, well not the 5 & 1 plan, but sometimes I still DO eat the Medifast meals because frankly I enjoy them!!

I’ve been eating about 1300-1500 calories a day.  I’m simply not hungry enough to eat more than that.  I’m eating healthier, which means lower calories, too.   I’m eating every 3 hours – eating 5 meals a day.   I have a good sized lunch and a good sized dinner.  My breakfast and snacks are small but balanced and filling- and usually consist of a MF meal.

I do indulge in a piece of chocolate here and there, I’ve had pizza (4 slices in one sitting last week!), I’ve had sandwiches, I’ve been sneaking cookies and scones from the freezer (left over from Christmas).  BUT, I’ve also been exercising 4 days a week- burning 250 calories each time…making my net calorie intake closer to 1,100 on those days.  Yikes.

I wanted to know if I was eating enough.  Am I doing ‘damage’?  How much should I be consuming every day?  Is my 1,300-1,500 target enough?  It feels like it is…I feel GRRRRREAT!

CALORIE-CALCULATOR (click here)

When I plugged in my age, height, weight….this is what it came back with….

1,220 calories a day is my basal metabolic rate….what my body needs just to survive.   I need to make sure I’m eating more than that!!

This next calculation is based on my activity level.  I really like the bottom portion of the chart- a 7 day zigzag.  I’ve read that your calories should fluctuate- have a really high day, and a low day, and try to maintain the rest of the week.  I sure did that last Friday when we went out to dinner!  That was a really high day for me!  Ha!

So it looks like I should probably eat a little more, especially since I’m exercising.  Basically, I’ve been averaging the “fat loss” chart.  And yes, I’m losing more fat.  I’m still getting thinner, leaner, stronger.  I feel amazing and like I said, I’m NOT hungry.  I don’t know how to incorporate more calories into my meals without going for sugar and ‘junk’.  Well, except for this morning….I had a banana, MF pancakes with sugar-free syrup, 2 eggs, 2 sugar-free fat-free lattes and a cranberry orange scone.   A 640 calorie breakfast.  I was so hungry after this morning’s workout!

And here’s a couple motivational posters I put on my Pinterest page:

You know what?  I WILL have the best body I’ve ever had this year!