Hi ladies....well I've been on the South Beach Diet for a little over a month now and although I have lost about 12 pounds I feel very limited in the foods I eat, and I really don't want to end up failing because I want to eat more of the stuff that is very limited, like baked potatoes...boy do I miss those. Anyways, I'm totally new to calorie counting and plan on starting tomorrow, BUT I have no idea how many calories I need in order to lose weight at a steady pace...I exercise several times a week and would love any feedback from you ladies .. Thanks!

Well, I think I would start by figuring out what I've been eating. Do you have a record of what you've eaten over the past week or two? Put it in a website like FitDay or CalorieKing and see what it totals up to. If you don't have a record, you might want to stick with your current eating plan for a few days and record what you're eating.

Also, how tall are you? That can make a big difference in calorie needs. Without knowing anything else, though, I would say you could start around 1600 calories and see how you do.

Welcome to calorie counting! It's the best.

If I were you, I'd run my data through some of the calorie calculators on the web and see what they come up with. If, say, the calculator said that you need 2500 calories a day to maintain your weight, you'd drop to 2000 cals to lose a pound a week or 1500 cals to lose 2 pounds a week. (This is based on the idea that 1lb of fat is 3500 calories.) Exercise will increase and speed up the losses. However, it's important to remember that the calculators are just guesttimates, and you're going to have to play trial and error with your body. Unless you're quite short, my guess would be that you'll want to start somewhere between 1500 and 1800 and see how it works out for you.

Good luck!

I use fitday and basically I've been anywhere from 1000 up to 1600 with South Beach....more so around 1500 most days (1000 on bad days) ....and I'm 5'7.
I think I'm going to aim for 1500/day with my exercise and see where that leads me....adjust it as I see fit after a few weeks

I just found a RDA on fitday - I use the free version... once you put in your height and weight.. go the goals tab and set a goal for calories... it'll have a number already there. I'm sure it will adjust as I entre my weight lose into fit day. looks handy

Here is a good calorie calculator also

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Hey Jenn,
I am on South Beach too and just wandered on over to the calorie counters' board bc my weight loss has totally stalled and i feel like something is awry with the SB way. I think i've let myself eat too much of the meats and cheeses that they allow.
Good luck with the diet! I'd love to know how it all goes for you!
Sonja

Hey! A good general guide, if you've got your resting metabolic rate and your daily calorie burn (which Fitday should tell you if you do the Goals calculation) is that if you eat 500 calories less than your daily total calorie burn, you'll lose a pound a week, average. And, you don't want to go below 1200 cals a day for an extended period (not enough nutrients). Exercise added on always helps!

Jay

Well, after calorie counting for a week (I took a few days off before switching over) I figured I'd post how things have been going. After being stuck at 188 for two weeks on SBD the scale finally moved after a week of CC. YAY! 3 pounds down as of this morning. I've been keeping my calories between 1400 and 1550 each day...which really seems like a lot of food when you make the right choices lol. At first I honestly thought, "how in the world am I going to lose any weight when I feel like I'm eating like a pig!" One of my favorite snacks has become Whole Grain Light bread with 1 teaspoon peanut butter. One thing I love is knowing I can have anything I want basically, as long as I stay within my calorie range...funny thing is, I'm not wanting any junk! Everything I've had has been healthy and I feel great. Yesterday my mother in law brought a picture she took Christmas 2 years ago. Well I felt horrible when I saw it, I couldn't believe how fat I looked and worse than that, how unhealthy....so, I dug through my winter clothes for this shirt..and asked my kid to take a picture to make sure I didn't look like this still! I'm going to try to figure out how to attach them here...since I've never done this it should be interesting LOL

You look great!! I'm so glad that I found this thread...I'm ready to switch too, I've been doing low carb, and am really not thinking i can live forever this way...I'm switching tomorrow!! Thanks for posting this i've found a lot of great info
keep us updated!!

I have been on and off of South Beach about 6 times. I can't seem to stick with it. I always do well in P1 and then as soon as I can add other stuff in P2, I blow it. In the past I have gained everything that I have lost plus some!!! I am trying out calorie counting now and it seems to be going well. I haven't officially weighed in yet and I am still in the first week, but I feel like I have lost a little and I don't feel deprived at all. I am hoping to have at least lost something!

Good luck!!

-Becky

This could have been written by me. I've decided to combine SBD(ish) and cal-counting to see if I have any better luck at consistent # loss.

I'm convinced that the good carb/good fat guide in SBD is right for me, but I also felt that I was probably eating too much because the diet advises that cal-counting isn't necessary. Apparently it is