I am finding the "500 calories for women" (i.e., ALL women) somewhat hard to believe - does this not depend on your size/age etc? I'm thinking that 2000 calories for me is too much (5.5, in my mid-forties). So if I feel that I should have no more than 1600 calories (kind of based on past experience), would that mean that I should not exceed 400 calories? Is there a scientific way to determine this? Do you all rigidly stick to 500 calories?