How do you know how many calories u need? Any cool tools out there for calorie counters too? Thanks so much. Ive always done weight watchers after my other kids, so im a little new to counting.

of the free programmes, the one I know and can recommend is sparkpeople.com. When you type in your stats, it gives you a calorie window - a 'no more than' but, perhaps even more importantly, a 'no less than' . It also tracks your nutrients, so that you can see if you're going too low on calcium/potassium/etc. I find it a very user-friendly and supportive programme

but I come to 3fc for forum suppport, the best bar none!!!!!

you could also google for a BMR calculator, which tells you what your body is burning without doing anything. basal metabolic rate.
i find this one pretty good.
http://preventdisease.com/healthtools/articles/bmr.html
you can also add your level of activity.
jillian michaels usually talks about multiplying with 1.2 for example for light activity. with 1.3 for moderate. depending on your lifestyle and how often you work out.

SORRY BUT OT:

I don't get why so many seem to like sparkpeople. I signed up once and thank god I made a separate email address to do so because I got so much SPAM immediately from them, and could NOT get them to stop I had to delete the address.

hey, i don't get ANY emails from sparkpeople even though i have signed up and track my calories there. you can set your profile to not receiving emails from them.

I'm a dailyplate.com person myself. I used that in the beginning to track every morsel of food that went into my mouth! Most of the foods I ate were already in there & when they weren't, it was super easy to add a new food. it also keeps track of all the foods you eat for quick links, so you don't have to search for something you might eat several times a week... Be careful with your calorie count though.... I started way too long and besides getting hammered by the lovely people here, I'm now finding that what they said was true... @ 1200 cals a day, and 152 lbs, the weight is just creeping off me now... It now takes me about a week or maybe two sometimes to lose 1 measly pound. Had I listened & started at a higher calorie count, I could of dropped my calories @ this point & kick start the losing again.....