I've lost a good ten pounds doing low-carb eating, but I recently hit a plateau. I think I'm not eating enough calories and my metabolism took a nose dive.

How many calories should I be eating? I weigh about 145 now, I'm 5'5", moderately active, and 23 years of age. I'd like to drop these last 30 pounds, but I'm not doing something right. When I'm doing low-carb eating (more often than not) my carb intake is usually below 25grams daily (often closer to 10), but I'm stalled for some reason.


Thank you,
Honey Snow

I see you have no specific plan. Why dont you check out the "which low-carb plan is right for me?" [on the left of the screen, under quick links]

On Atkins your carb level should be right around 20g per day. It is not beneficial to go below that level. Calories should be around 10 - 12 x your weight. If you go below that your body might go into starvation mode and your metabolism will slow down.... a common fault with low cal/low fat diets.

There's lots of great information on here or pick up a book from the library and read it. Try to think of this as a new way of eating... not a quick fix diet.

Akiwican

Akiwican, when I'm low-carbbing I can't seem to do 1500 calories no matter how hard I try. I love eating and try to snack on low-carb foods all day, but my appetite plummets when I cut down on carbs. Some days I'm lucky if I can get 800 calories in a day.

Do you think exercising more would increase my appetite?

I will look into purchasing a book, also.

Fat is your friend now, dont be afraid to eat it. The most easy way to increase calories is to add butter, mayo, cream etc. It is very dense in calories and will get your numbers up to where they should be .... and they taste pretty darn good too!

Exercise has increased my appetite for sure... weight training.

Glad to hear you are getting a book too.

Akiwican