Calories for my Size
 

I'm 19, 5'5", and 140 lbs. My new diet starts on Monday, but I'm wondering how many calories I should base my plan on.

I'm thinking about doing "calorie shifting". I'm not too sure how exactly that works either, but I need my median calorie intake to base the shifting on.

How does 1200 sound?

Day 1: 1200
Day 2: 1400
Day 3: 1000
Day 4: 1600
Day 5: 1200
Day 5: 1800
Day 6: 1000

I'm not sure if that would even work. Any thoughts?

My only suggestion is that you dont want to start off too low in calories. 1200 is the absolute lowest you want to go. Maybe start off more like 1500 or so depending on how active you are. Remember its easy to reduce the calories but its a lot harder to add them on and not gain. If after 3-4 weeks at 1500 or whatever you choose then you can lower from there if you are seeing no results lower by 100 and stay there for another 3 weeks or so.

Very good point. Ok, so if I do 1500 along with my exercise, it would look more like this?

Day 1: 1500
Day 2: 1300
Day 3: 1700
Day 4: 1200
Day 5: 2000
Day 6: 1500
Day 7: 1300

How does that look?

That looks like a good plan. Calorie shifting is nice especially since some days it seems like your body is a little more hungry than others.

[B]I use a site called www.caloriescount.com
Go to it click on upper left corner box that says weight/height/age ect.weight managment plan~sometimes it says diet management or so on calculator))You can then use there calculator for free(You do not have to be a member) Anyways,It will tell you the amount of calories you can eat a day to maintain weight and how much to eat to lose weight also. If you can not figure it out just message me.(Let me know age/ male or female/height & weight I can let you know.)[/B]I do agree not to go under 1200 Calories.I would not personally scramble the calorie intake. I do the same amount daily so I am not tempted on other days to overeat.Or undereat(if I was able to undereat ever LOL)

Oh, cool. Thanks!

I think 1500 is prolly a good place to start for you (this sticky says so, too.)

Just a thought - but is exercise a part of your plan? You don't have much to lose, some weight training would do wonders if you aren't doing it already.

Originally Posted by chick_in_the_hat:
Just a thought - but is exercise a part of your plan? You don't have much to lose, some weight training would do wonders if you aren't doing it already.

Yes, I'll be power-walking on the treadmill 5 days a week for about 30 minutes and doing some extra work-outs at night (ab work-outs, lunges, squats, etc).

I also use the calorie count site, to see what my required maintenance caloric count is, based on my current weight and activity level. I'm trying to lose about 2 lbs a week, so I need to cut calories by 1000 per day. A healthier diet would be to cut 500 calories a day and you should lose about one pound a week (if your metabolism is fairly normal).

I used this method the last time I lost weight and it worked pretty well for me. It doesn't work for everyone, as we all have different metabolic rates.

Just remember you need to cut 3500 calories a week (from your required maintenance caloric needs) to lose one pound. That's 500 calories a day.

Originally Posted by lbwhite89:
Yes, I'll be power-walking on the treadmill 5 days a week for about 30 minutes and doing some extra work-outs at night (ab work-outs, lunges, squats, etc).

Rawk on! :carrot: