Am I doing this right?
 

Hi all,
I am hoping you an help me. I am eating about 1700 calories a day. Doing some minor arm weights and doing in home walking about 25 minutes a day. Is it enough? too much? Any help would be appreciated!

I think that sounds pretty reasonable. I started at 285 and 1500 calories (of healthy whole foods) with about that much exercise and I've been losing nice and steady around 10 pounds a month.

I'd try your 1700 for a few weeks, see how it feels (energy-wise, weightloss-wise, etc) and then tweak it from there. I think it's a good place to start though.

Thanks, I am totally guessing on the amount of calories to start at. So, I was realy hoping 1700 would be a good start. :)

Every person is different so figuring out where to start is tough. Starting at 1700 makes a lot of sense. Losing weight is easier at higher weights and 1700 gives you plenty of wiggle room if you need to drop your calories as you get closer to goal.

I really like http://caloriecount.about.com/ . It has a daily food log that you can fill out (and an exercise one). It also tells you your daily "target" and how much you should eat to burn a certain amount. i recommend checking it out! (go to tools/burn meter to see how much you burn in a day!)

I have been using spark for tracking so far. the ebsite you gave caloriecount said I should eat 2100 calories a day. That seem so high.

yeah, the website won't calculate it so you lose more than 2 lbs per week. but, it WILL tell you how many calories you burn in a day. So, let's say, based on your height, weight and age you burn 2600 in a day. If you only eat 1700 in a day, then you're "burning" 900 calories a day (3500 calories is about equal to a pound). (not counting exercise). You can kind of calculate from there how many calories per day you should eat to lose however much you want. 1700 seems about right. I wouldn't go too much lower than that!

Looks like it is working for you so far! Congratulations on the thirty pounds that you have lost! :)

I use sparks for tracking purposes too.

The calculators can be helpful for general guesses, but people really are different. If you are eating 1700/day and losing regularly over a few weeks, then that's your answer!

Good luck!

I use ************ for tracking since i can get it on my phone so there's no excuses about tracking my food. I also like it because its one of the few places that has a grocery store I use. With sparkpeople, my calorie counter, weightwatchers, etc., i put in a name and it would never find what i'm looking for, and it was such a headache to have to manually put in each thing. Its worse because I like variety and I cook at home a lot so there's tons of stuff I have to add in anyway.

Just don't deprive yourself too much with your calories, for me 1500 is ok for about a week, then i find myself slipping up for a few days. Also if you're used to a high calorie diet cutting drastically might trigger some really powerful cravings. But little by little you'll learn what works for you and you'll get better at it. :D