It's scale weight.

The full rule for someone that is starting to monitor caloric intake, and is currently taking in calorie surplus (a nice way to say OVEREATING) is to start at bodyweight x 12, and work down from there.

There are other things you can do along the way to delay the calorie cutting while still losing fat. Exercise is one, as are supplements that can be used to manipulate your matabolic rate.

From BW x12, you can drop to BW x 11, and as a final stop ... BW x 10.

Of course, these figures and the weight loss that individuals get from them will vary based on the activity level, gender, muscle mass, and exercise intensity of the individual.

I find it unneccesary to drop below BW x 12, but then again I have a decent amount of muscle mass, I have a very physical/active job, I work out alot, and I take supplements that accelerate my metabolic rate. My metabolism is flying, and I have to keep calories up just to satisfy my body's needs.

At the other end of the scale, when I first started my weight loss (way back not too many years ago), I had not-so-much muscle, I had a desk job, I never worked out, and I had poor nutrition. My metabolism was on low burn, so I needed less calories to fill my body's basic needs.

The BW x 12, etc are guidelines. If you really want to get into it, find an online calculator to find your body's active metabolic rate and figure in your caloric needs for exercise. Then subtract a few hundred calories per day to create the caloric defecit necessary for fat loss.

And remember to keep eating your protein. LOL.