BMR is variable and depends on your body fat percentage, activity
level, thyroid level etc.

The easiest way to measure it is to eat normally for a week and count
all calories. If you do not lose or gain weight, that you would be
your baseline rate (not basal, as it would include exercise that you
do).

If you subtract 1000 calories from your eating, you would be losing 2
lbs per week, or 104 lbs per year, which would be right on track for
your weight goal.

This is the best way to do it, yes. Make sure that you drop least
nutritious foods. Also, you need exercise, but you do not need to buy
expensive equipment or gym membership. You can if you want to, but it
is optional.

i

What Ingnaramus said plus I'd get a good way of tracking your calories in
and calories out (exercise). What I use is a program called DietPower.
There are others, such as FitDay that work well. You can download a 2-
week trial at http://www.dietpower.com. Also, get yourself a decent food
scale, here's a good one:
http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3654134

I've been tracking everying I eat for over a year now. I've gone from 245
lbs last July to 165 lbs this April. I've been maintaining between 160
and 165 since then.

Phil M.

In general, yes.  I think that setting a starting figure, then seeing
what happens and adjusting, is the right approach.  I'd also recommend
setting some goals for nutrients -- like making sure you get adequate
protein and fiber.  (And it probably goes without saying that you
should try to spend your calories on mostly nutritious foods and not
all on beer and French fries and candy bars :-).)

My guess is that your starting figure of 3000 calories per day might
be a bit high to lead to weight loss, but it doesn't hurt to get the
wrong starting point as long as you adjust.  Do you have any idea how
many calories per day you consumer now?  Lots of people here like
using www.fitday.com to track their calories.  You could always put a
few current sample days into it and see what you're eating now.
Clearly, a change will be needed to lose weight.

Also, are you planning to gradually add some exercise to your
lifestyle?  Exercise is important for everyone, and it will really
help you lose weight and maintain your loss.

I lost my weight by calorie counting, and I took an approach of
setting a figure and then adjusting as needed.  I was already
exercising a fair bit -- mostly weightlifting -- but added more cardio
to the mix.

I personally would recommend not setting a deadline for yourself to
reach your goal weight, but that's up to you.  If you don't lose at
your planned rate you don't want to think of yourself as unsuccessful,
after all.  What's most important is the direction of the line, not
the slope.

If you hang around here you'll get lots of good advice.  Some of it
will be conflicting, of course, but you can filter it to fit your
needs.

Wishing you success!

Chris
262/143/ (145-150)

IMHO you are coming at this the wrong way. Rather than try and work out
how you can eat as much as possible and still lose weight, try this.

Examine your lifestyle, look at what exercise you get, and plan your
diet so as to fuel that activity. You'll probably come to a completely
different conclusion.

If you aren't going to factor in what exercise you are getting - you'll
only ever be looking at 50% of the problem, and you will always be
overweight.

I have two sisters - they are both thin; one eats approximately 900
calories a day, but then she sits and watches TV most of the day (I
know, I know... yawwnnnn) whilst the other, who cycles, swims, plays
badminton and tennis, eats around 2500 calories a day. See how it works?

--
Succorso

As long as you're aware that some weeks you won't be losing that much, and
others, you will lose slightly more. And that you might experience slow
downs or even stalls (especially as you go near your normal weight and/or
when you have lost a lot rather quickly) and that it is indeed perfectly
normal.

The problem with setting a precise goal is that sometimes you don't make it,
and then you get a feeling of utter failure that can ruin all your efforts
and cause you to binge/drop the diet. Even though you did lose weight and
that any weight lost *is* an achievement. Having goals is ok, because it can
be motivating, but you have to be flexible about that and keep a positive
attitude (I lost x% of my goal, rather than I have y% left to lose).

I would be extra extra careful with whatever BMR a site comes with.
Understand that it is an average, it's not *your* BMR. It's like saying the
average American of your race, sex and ethnicity earns $x a year. It's a
useful statistical information and it's also useful if you want to compare
yourself to the average. But if you were to plan your budget according to
these $x instead of what you actually earn, bad things would happen...
That's the same with your calculated BMR, and I suspect it varies from
people to people as much as average income. I wouldn't say your BMR is 2972,
it's rather 3k +- 1000 or something like that.
The best way to get a good value is to track how much you *currently* eat,
over several days/weeks and take an average. If you have kept a constant
weight during that time, then you have a good value of the amount of
calories *you* need to keep a constant weight. It's a good value to work on
from...