I got inspired by
this article. Based on his recommendations, I set my calorie level for 1800/day to start with. The thing is, though, is that I get diet fatigue really fast doing day in and day out low calorie and it seemed like one mistake dicked up the whole week.
I have done alternate day fasting before and found it easy once I got going. ADF has found to be as safe and effective as daily calorie restriction and it easier for me to stick with. What worked best for me was to "fast" Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday ("down days") and eat Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday ("up days").
With ADF, down days are actually 500 calories, though you can go zero if you want. I am currently doing the 500 calories. So a week's worth of calories is 1800 x 7 or 12600. Subtract out the three down days 12600 - 1500 for 11100 or 2775 a day for up days. I want to have one day where I don't have to really worry about calories so I actually do 2500 a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which leaves 3600 for Saturday. That leaves a lot of wiggle room for having pizza or something. I don't like a true "cheat day" as that usually means a "binge day".
If you've looked into things like refeed days and diet breaks, there are some mental and physical benefits to breaking up the long low calorie periods. Eating this way builds in those diet breaks. Having those higher calorie days also help with the diet fatigue.
I try to target protein on my down days so will do eggs or non-fat Greek yogurt and a piece of fruit. On up days, I usually do fruit and low fat dairy in the morning (cottage cheese or Greek yogurt) and for dinner, I tend towards low fat carbs and lean protein (I do a lot of stir fries or potatoes). The biggest challenge is fitting in with my wife's schedule as she does't need to diet.