Starting a Reduced Calorie Diet - Baseline & Targets

Today, I start my reduced calorie diet.  This is the traditional and most widely accepted weight loss strategy.  In the past, I have had great success with low carb diets, losing as much as 85 pounds.  I blogged every step of the way and posted low carb recipes.  That blog, Big Daddy D's Low Carb can be found at:  http://lowcarbohydrate.blogspot.com/.  And, now that I am attempting reduced calories, I will be doing the same here.  If the low-calorie diet does not result in 8 pounds lost per month for the first couple of months, I will go back to low-carb as it works well for my body.

In preparation for this reduced calorie diet, I calculated my base metabolic rate (BMR) to be 2460 calories per day.  Then, because I do have a little physical activity, I have adjusted this by a factor of 1.2.  My adjusted BMR is 2952.  This is the number of calories I should be able to consume without gaining or losing any weight.

Then, I calculated that to lose 100 pounds in a year, I need to consume 1994 calories per day.  If I consume more than this, I will try to offset it with exercise.

I do not believe in measuring weight loss success in pounds alone.  Often when weight plateaus, the waistline continues to shrink.  So, I am starting the diet by recording my beginning measurements (in pounds and inches):

Weight:  351 (ouch, hadn't realized I'd gotten so fat).
Waist (sucked in/relaxed/puffed out):  56/59/60.5
Hips: 56.5
Thigh (left/right):  33.5/34
Calf: 20.5/21.5
Forearm:  15/15
Bicept (flexed):  18.5/19.5
Neck: 20
Wrist: 8/8
Height:  5' 10.5"

My wife will also be joining me on this weight loss journey.  Her adjusted BMR is 2643 calories per day to maintain.  Her target caloric intake is 1828 calories per day to achieve her goal in 365 days.

Game rules... If the diet is a lifestyle change then we must accept that on certain occasions our calorie intake will be higher than our target.  It will not always be practical to exercise enough to offset the difference.  Therefore, we are going to earn one day off the diet every week.  These earned days can be used whenever we choose.  They are not intended as "binge days" even though no maximum caloric intake is set. This was not calculated into our target.  If it seems to be hurting our progress, we may change the rule to simply bank calories whenever we are under our target.

I will begin a good journal... meticulously writing down everything I eat and looking up the calories.  This will help me to identify the foods that have caused stalls.