just how many calories do you need? I know all about burning more than you take in but what is a healthy and safe amount that is adequate for weight loss? Lets use the scenario of someone who works out 5-6 days a week with either cardio alone or weights alone or somedays both. To give you an idea of the intensity she'll do 30 mins on the treadmill at an avg of 4.8 mph. She'll do one set on the cybex circuit when she's doing it in combo with 30 min cardio. And she'll do 2 sets and a shorter lets say 15-20 mins on the treadmill. one more question on calories--lets say its 1500--its best to have it broken up into 5 meals of 300 each?
thanks again
dean
Your calorie needs depends on lots of things. I'm sure others will chime in with a more detailed response, but how many calories you need depends on your age, your height, your current weight, your sex, your activity level, etc. You get the idea.
There's a formula you can use based on your present weight that will tell you how many calories you need to maintain your weight. (Unfortunately, I've forgotten it). Websites like WebMD and Fitday have calorie calculators that take into consideration your level of activity. They are just general numbers since everyone is different. But can be a place to start. I recently had a resting metabolic rate test that gave me a more accurate picture of the number of calories I burn at rest. It's a useful tool in meal planning.
3FC has its own page of calculators that might be useful to you as well. It's good to use their BMR as just a suggestion and then use actual math, calorie-averaging, and combine how many lbs you've lost in a backwards calculation to figure out how many calories you need to maintain.
Yupyup--what they said It varies widely depending on your weight (heavier people burn more calories because their bodies are constantly carrying/moving more weight), your sex (those darn men always burn more than women), and, for many of us, whether or not you've completely killed your metabolism by doing too many crash diets in the past As suggested, try an online calculator (you can Google it), but be forewarned that each calculator will probably give you a different answer. When I started, I saw everything from 1800-3200 calories a day The best method is simply trial and error. Try 1800 (or 1600 or 2000--hard to say without knowing your weight) a day, see how that works for a few weeks, and adjust accordingly. Rule of thumb is to NOT go below 1200 consistently in order to get enough nutrition and energy from your food, but with your amount of exercise, I would think you'd be a least a couple hundred above that, anyway.
The recommendation I've always heard is to calculate your BMR and then go 1000 calories below that either through cutting your food, exercising or both to lose 2 lbs a week and 500 if you want to lose 1 lb a week.
Jill -- did you used to be on Jorge Cruise's 3 hour diet web site as a member?
just how many do you need?
It varies widely depending on your weight (heavier people burn more calories because their bodies are constantly carrying/moving more weight), your sex (those darn men always burn more than women), and, for many of us, whether or not you've completely killed your metabolism by doing too many crash diets in the past 
As suggested, try an online calculator (you can Google it), but be forewarned that each calculator will probably give you a different answer. When I started, I saw everything from 1800-3200 calories a day 
The best method is simply trial and error. Try 1800 (or 1600 or 2000--hard to say without knowing your weight) a day, see how that works for a few weeks, and adjust accordingly. Rule of thumb is to NOT go below 1200 consistently in order to get enough nutrition and energy from your food, but with your amount of exercise, I would think you'd be a least a couple hundred above that, anyway.
