Hi Stephen - you've lost 27 pounds!!!! Good for you. If you haven't lost any in the last couple of weeks it may be that your body is going through an adjustment period. You don't lose fat cells, you simply lose the fat that was in those cells. Well, those silly cells don't want to shrink so they fight you by filling up with water. You fight them by drinking more water. They lose - you lose (actually you win). It may take a little while so please be patient.

As for how many calories to consume, well I've seen it said in different posts that you should consume 10-12x your current weight.

Do you use fitday.com? It's really fascinating (some folks do find it a bit tedious, but I don't). When you join fitday you fill in different things like your current weight, how active you are, etc. and it tells you how many calories you use for your base amount (your current size), your lifestyle, and another number that is your activities for the day. Of course, you have to fill in your daily activities - it's easy - just click then adjust the minutes. Your daily caloric intake should be somewhere between your basal rate (mine is 1466) and my total rate (today it was 2418 - haven't filled in any activities yet). My current weight is 176 x 10 = 1760 or 176 x 12 = 2112 should be my approximate caloric intake. You can see it falls somewhere in between my two numbers.

Since that is now as clear as mud to you, have fun.

Good luck to you. I think you're doing great so far.

shortstuff

PS - do you think you might not be eating enough and your body is fighting to keep every calorie you put in it? Just something for you to think about.