Janie,
I was helping my daughter study her nutrition last fall (ironically while I was in the hospital) and found out that being malnourished, recovering from illness, fighting infection, etc, really revs up our metabolism, causing us to need lots more calories just to exist. It took me 7 months to recover enough to be able to store calories to maintain weight. Up till then every calorie I could possibly consume went to keeping the fires burning. So I don't doubt for a minute that you need a huge amount of calories just to keep from losing weight--forget putting any on.
Otherwise, all things being equal, it takes 10 cals per pound to keep a woman function basically and 12 cals per pound for men. 3500 calories equals a pound. If you want to lose a pound in a week you have to have a net consumption of 3500 calories less than your base amount. SOOOOOO:
a 200 lb woman:
to maintain a basic existance: 2000 calories per day
to lose 1 lb in a week: net consumption of 500 fewer calories per day (either 500 more calories of activity or 500 calories less of food, or a combination equalling this amount)
To lose 2lbs in a week, just double the above numbers. If you need to gain, just reverse the process.
__________________
Donna the SDgrrl 
Happy to be a GrrzlyBear!
doing the best I can each day
Honor yourself, honor others, and honor the Earth...the rest will take care of itself
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