Ron is doing this the REAL hard way. He's working his tail off hiking, biking, working out etc. His weight loss will be easier to maintain than mine is. I have to be very careful because I haven't been working out much since June.
Weight loss is simply science. Personally I decided I wanted to be 185 lbs. I calculated how many calories a 185 lb man needed to maintain that weight at my normal level of activity. Once I found out what that was I knocked off about 800-1000 calories per day to give myself an approximate weight loss of 2 lbs or so per week. I lost 82 lbs in 26 weeks eating 1500 calories per day avg. I was off on my calculations a little bit. But after analyzing the results the following can be determined:
1) I was losing 3.15 lbs per week on average.
2) Since a lb lost = 3500 calories I was eating 11,025 calories per week or 1575 calories per day LESS than I needed to eat to maintain my weight.
3) That means that ONCE I reach 185 I might be able to eat as much as 1500 (what I was eating) + 1575 (my weight loss deficit) or a total of 3000+ calories per day once I reach my desired weight.
That's not exact because when I do reach 185 I'm likely to need a little less calories to maintain BUT I might be more active. I'll have to re evaluate when I get there.
These "tested" numbers are pretty close to what I came up with when I started losing weight. I calculated that a very moderately active 185 lb man at my age would need 2700 calories to maintain that weight. I then subtracted down to 1500 to get my desired level of loss.
Science always works.
Here's a young kid who is in outstanding shape who has a lot of great ideas and recipes on youtube. This video kindof explains where I started a year ago with my calculations:
