How many calories should I actually be eating to lose weight?

[sophs987]

I am 23 years old, female, 5 foot 11 and weigh around 196bs.
I do not do too much activity in the day but try to work out at the gym for an hour 6 days a week.
How many calories should be eating in order to lose weight? I am currently eating around 1100...
I am not losing anything and wonder where I am going wrong!
I drink a lot of water a day.
I used to starve myself for a few years (eating disorder) so I am sure my metabolism is slow now.

Any help or advice would be wonderful!!

 

[amy1985]

Hi, and welcome to the forum

Generally speaking, you should create a deficit under your maintenance calorie allowance, which you can calculate here (including following the links to multiply for exercise level): You can either create a deficit of 500-1000 under your calorie allowance, or one of 30%. Importantly, that number should never drop below 1200 for women without professional supervision, so without even running your numbers, you need to be eating more for your overall health (which I presume is more important overall than weight loss). You should also make sure you're eating a balanced, nutritious diet if you aren't already.

Given your specific history, though, I would seriously recommend speaking to your doctor, as I doubt very many people here are qualified to discuss the effects of slowed metabolism due to previous insufficient caloric intake/ eating disorders.