Hi everyone, I'm new here and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on a dilemma I'm facing. I'm 21, 5'8'' and 3/4 in height and weigh 150 pounds. I exercise every day, on Mondays I do a dance aerobics class for an hour, tues. through thursday I run for thirty minutes and strength train for thirty, friday I do an hour of yoga, saturday I run and strength train like tues.-thurs. and sunday I jog for forty minutes. I'm trying to figure out how many calories to shoot for in the day to lose about a pound a week. I'm shooting for 135 pounds by summer. I've used online calculators and they put my daily caloric needs at around 2500 calories! Is that too many? They suggest about 2100 calories a day to lose weight, but I've been trying to stay around 1800. I get extremely hungry, and am wondering if I should bump my calories to 2100. What do you all think?

Thanks!

I use freedieting.com and for someone your age, weight & height...they put you at about 2,000 calories. But it is really all about trial & error. You need to see what works for you and your body. A good way to do it is to try 2,000 calories for 3-4 weeks and see what your losses are. Then take away 200 calories (1,800) and do that for another 3-4 weeks and then compare your losses. Unhappy? Try adding 200 (2,200 cals). Etc.

Hey! I'm just guessing, but I'd say increase your calories! Maybe only to 1900 to start off with, and try that for a couple of weeks, then if things are working well and you're still hungry a lot, go up to 2000. If the estimate of your calories burned is correct, and given how hard you work out, I expect it is, you should lose a pound a week at 2000--on average. That means some weeks nothing, other weeks more.

Jay

All calorie determination is basically trial and error, but if you're starving all the time, one of two things is going on:

1. You're eating way below the number of calories you need
or
2. You're not eating the right foods to keep you full.

That 1800 calories...what are you eating in that amount? Can you give us a sample day or two?

What has your loss been like so far at 1800? It's possible you'll be able to lose 1 lb a week on more calories, but if you're only losing half a pound a week at 1800, for example, increasing your calories probably won't help you any.

You're relatively close to your goal weight, though, so 1 lb a week might be fairly rapid. After all, you're already a normal weight for your height, so you don't have massive stores of energy to lose (and thus an easier time losing weight quicker).

If you are starving all the time I would try increasing. Once you are at a healthy weight (which you are) I think it is more realistic to think of 1/4-1/2 lb avg. a week as reasonable.

At this point (at any point really, but especially now) you have to be looking at what kind of eating you can do forever because it wont change a lot in maintenance.

yes, a sample of what you are eating would help.

Thanks so much for all the advice so far...

My typical day here is

Breakfast- a bowl of corn flakes with leche desnatada? I think it's skimish
Usually a cheese wedge, the laughing cow kind

Snack-biscuits that everyone eats here called marias with 1/2 tablespoon of nutella

Lunch-?No control, it's whatever my host mom cooks, usually some kind of soup or stew loaded with veggies and usually ham with bread, about two cups of the soup or so and bread kind of like the baguette you get at Panera

Snack-Apple, usually some kind of all-bran fiber bar or kellog's mixed berry bar

Dinner-? Again, whatever my host mom prepares, usually something very light like a salad with oil and vinegerate, a serving size or two of meat and a small potato with a bunch of vegetables

Desert- Usually a small yogurt or an orange

Now that would be a perfect day, with no unhealthy cheats of any kind...