The sun is shining through!

I’m being obsessive about calories now (I get in these moods when I feel stuck)
The calories I know for today are:

Breakfast
2 Eggs = 180 calories
Eggs mixed with flax seed, cinnamon, hot pepper, Italian spices = 50cal (1 tbsp of ground flax seed has 50 calories)
Yogurt = 40 calories

TOTAL: 270 calories

Lunch
1 measured cup of blue berries = 82 calories
2 tablespoons (measured) of salad dressing = 20 calories
½ chicken burger cut up into salad = 80 calories
Lettuce, tomato, pepper, onion, mushrooms = 100 calories (approx)

TOTAL: 282 calories

1200 calories is the minimum I should have or I’m starving my body. To loose weight I’m aiming for 1200 per day. 1700 - 2000 calories being the normal calorie intake to maintain a healthy weight each day with a desk job.

After reviewing today’s calories so far I have 650 calories left over for dinner and snacks today. Maybe that’s what’s gone wrong! I’ve had too little calories and put my body into starvation mode with what I’ve been eating each day.

Yesterday I had the same breakfast & dinner plus a salad at Wendy’s. Wendy’s publishes a nutrition guide on line and I was able to figure out that my calories for the meal where. The Mandarin Chicken Salad was 170 calories without crispy noodles, plus 190 calories for the dressing package. I only ate ½ a dressing package so I had about 270 calories for dinner last night. I didn’t put the crispy noodles on the salad because I’m not a fan of these noodles. This means, for yesterday I had a total of approximately 830 calories and that’s too low!

I think I found my solution as to why I’m not loosing weight. I’ve messed up my metabolism with too few calories. Interesting… now how to fix it without gaining weight? There’s the question of the day now!

Namaste
B.

Here is some information I on the web (seems to match a lot of information I read in several places). I combined sources into a more condense version:

Rough Estimate of Calorie Needs to Lose Weight

Here is a very rough guide of how many calories you need per day, if you want to lose weight. It's a ballpark estimate only.

TeensTeenagers need about 1500-1800 calories per day

Women (Non-Active)Sedentary women typically need about 1100-1300 calories per day

Women (Active)Active women typically need about 1400-1600 calories per day

Men (Non-Active)Sedentary men typically need about 1600-1800 calories per day

Men (Active)Active men typically need about 1800-2000 calories per day

One pound of fat contains approximately 3,500 calories, so to lose one pound a week, a person should consume approximately 3,500 fewer calories per week. This can be done by reducing the daily intake by 500 calories per day (500 x 7 days will provide a deficit of 3,500 calories per week). To lose 2 pounds per week, a deficit of 1,000 calories per day is required.

If this seems impossible, remember that physical activity also contributes significantly to weight loss. The deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories can come from a combination of increased physical activity and reduced intake on a daily basis.

Therefore, you don't need to experience significant food deprivation. The lowest intake per day recommended for females is 1,200 calories, unless they are in a medically-supervised, very low-calorie regimen which may have a daily level of 500 to 800 calories per day.

The lowest level recommended for males is 1,500 calories per day. A very low-calorie diet can also be used by males if they are in a medically-supervised program.

Here are some steps for weight maintenance and weight loss:

Increase your daily activity -- take the stairs rather than the elevator, or walk rather than drive when possible.
Reduce your food intake gradually. This will help make these new eating habits lifetime changes. Reduce fat intake on a daily basis, and reduce intake of other high-calorie foods.
Change any habits that make you eat more, or eat poorly.
Learn about the calorie content of foods and the calorie expenditure of various physical activities.