Wendy, It is definately tougher for women. The male metabolism just burns it faster than womens. Exercise is also key. It definately boosts the metabolism. While I didn't pay too much attention to calorie intake, I did keep track and found that I ranged somewhere between 2000 and 2800 calories per day during the time that I lost weight. I started out for the first few weeks keeping my net carb intake under 20 carbs then raised it each week adding 5 additional carbs and gradually got up to about 100. My weight loss then started to slow, so I backed it back down again to about 70 net carbs and it accelerated again. So that is pretty much the range that I know I can stay in without gaining weight.

Also, here is a side by side shot. Kind of a before and after pose.