I was wondering if anyone knows of a good website for me to go to in order to figure out how many calories I should consume/expend to lose weight? I have heard a lot of mixed things from both people and websites and I want something accurate. I have heard that I need to consume all the way from 1200 per day all the way up to 2800...thats a big range and I want something more accurate.
You probably won't get anything really accurate unless you go to the doctor for a special test, since your body is unique. The online calculators are based on forumulas which are just a starting point to give you a general idea of what most people like you will burn. I watched a tv show on FitTv recently and they showed several people get tested. The basic calculators may say you burn about 2600 (as an example) calories to maintain yourself, but one woman they showed had a very slow metabolism and only burned 1200 calories per day. Everyone was different. It was hard to reduce her calories by very much, so they worked on increasing her metabolism by adding more exercise, and she lost weight. But that's another topic
Have you ever kept a food log even when not dieting to lose? It might help to know how many calories you can eat while maintaining your weight.
You might even pick a number and see how it works for you, then tweak it as needed. A lot of our members lose well at 1600 calories, some need 1200.
Another option besides going to a doctor is that some gyms (e.g. 24 Hour Fitness) do a similar test as part of a personal training package. Mine showed I consume about 300 more calories than the online calculators would indicate. I've been targeting 2200 calories for the past 4 months and have lost around 40 pounds. Good luck to you .
I did pretty good with the online calculators. That's what I've followed all the way through this and I've almost made it to goal. So apparently my results were fairly accurate because I've lost slowly and safely all this time.
Just do a search for "calorie calculators" and play with a few of them to see what you come up with. As the others said, it's just an estimate, but it gives you something to start with. Just keep in mind that you periodically have to check them again as you lose weight because the more weight you lose, the fewer calories you need and your maintenance calories will drop.
The general rule is to find out how many calories you need to consume in order to maintain your weight, then to lose weight, you subtract 500 from that total. That will give you your "loss" calories. I started out at about 1800 and it slowly dropped over time and I'm down to 1200-1300 calories a day now. These last few pounds have been buggers to get off, though. I think I'm gonna be 141 pounds for the rest of my life, lol.
Has anyone mentioned Fitday yet? I do believe that it's estimations of how much you burn off is a little high, but it certainly seems to do a credible job of actually counting calories. I like that you can add custom foods, and the fact that the online version is free. I certainly think its a good place for a beginner to start.
Has anyone mentioned Fitday yet? I do believe that it's estimations of how much you burn off is a little high, but it certainly seems to do a credible job of actually counting calories. I like that you can add custom foods, and the fact that the online version is free. I certainly think its a good place for a beginner to start.
I agree with Annie! I like Fitday, too - but only for calculating calories consumed. I don't trust the Basal Calories count at all! But it would be nice to eat that much and still lose...
Last edited by chick_in_the_hat; 01-07-2006 at 04:33 PM.
I'm another fitday fan. But I'm going to caution, just like Gina, that the exercise burned is not accurate. Some friends of mine are getting pretty nice numbers by setting their lifestyle level at sedentary and only adding actual exercise or extra activity. It's more reflective of their actual loses.
OMG I checked out that "so you wanna" web site....too funny. They basically tell you to "get off your fat A**"....true you need to get moving to loose wieght, but they do put a comical approach to motivation..
Calories
