Hey folks! I'm new to calorie counting (well, not to the whole concept, just to actually doing it). I got a really cool journal at the bookstore yesterday and it's really helping to motivate me because it's exactly what I was looking for, including a weight chart for the refrigerator.

So I had a few questions if you don't mind. I have looked through a lot of these threads, so if these have been asked/answered elsewhere, I apologize.

1. As you lose weight, does your required number of calories go down at all? In other words, if I'm shooting for 1300 calories, once I lose say, 20 pounds should I start eating less calories?

2. What is the best method of determining how many calories I should eat? I was originally shooting for 1200 but then today after logging the calories (for the first time ever), I ended up with 1465. I messed up on my snack (way too many almonds) so I could easily shave off 100 calories, but I'm a little hungry so I don't want to get rid of any more. So is this how you figure out your calorie goal, by trial and error?

3. Is there a method of determining how many calories one expends in a normal day sans exercise? I thought I remember reading somewhere that depending on your weight/height/lifestyle/eye-color/etc. how many calories you burn just in a normal day. That would be helpful to me so that I can see if I'm exercising enough.

Thanks everyone!

1300 seems very low, especially when you are just starting out and the weight you are right now (it doesnt give you much room to move down when you need to). I use thedailyplate.com it tells me how many calories I need to lose 1.5 pounds per week and if I log my exercise it tells me what calories I gain. you just have to sign up and put in your weight age...

Answers:

#1 - Typically, yes. I started out at around 245-250 and ate around 1800 calories per day. As I got closer to being under 200, I slowly lowered it. I aim for 1300-1600 right now. Once I get around 170, I will probably try for 1200-1500 and won't go below that. You have to find out what is right for you, though. Our bodies are different. I'd start around 1600 calories for 2 weeks and record your losses. If you don't like them, add 200 calories and do the same thing.

I guess that answers part of question #2. There is lots of calculators online to help determine how many you should eat. I did trial & error.

#3 - Any exercise is GOOD exercise. I use The Daily Plate to track my calories AND general exercise. It will produce your calorie deficit as well. Remember, though, just because you burned 400 calories, doesn't mean you can eat an additional 400 calories. The deficits are what help you lose weight. So if your deficit leaves you with 900 calories for that day, it's fine. Listen to your body, if it's hungry, feed it.

1. Yes

2. I do agree that 1300 is too low for your current weight. I'd try, at least, 1500 calories per day and see how much you lose. You want to aim for 1-2lbs per week, so if you are losing more than that I'd up your calories a bit (say 100 calories or so.) When I was just over 200 I lost pretty steadily eating 1600-1700 calories and then I dropped down to 1400-1500. I try to stay closer to 1500 though (still.)

I would say that to a certain extent, calorie ranges are a bit of trial and error. There are online calculators you can google, but everyone's body is different, so a calculator may not be accurate for everyone. You just don't want to start too low.

3. The same online calculators will give you an estimate of how much you burn based on activity level, age, sex, and weight. Like I said, everyone is different, so take it with a grain of salt.

Welcome and feel free to ask any questions you have! There are a lot of knowledgeable chicks around here.

1. The number you need to eat may go down, but it depends on your level of activity. Dropping pounds may be offset by increased exercise. A tracking tool like FitDay shows you the numbers as your weight drops, etc.

2. Do not eat too low. For your current size, 1200 is probably too low. I've read that one should not eat below their BMR (basal metabolic rate). Here is a site that has lots of calculators you can try:

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

3. The same site has exercise calculators, but be aware that it's very hard to quantify how much you burn with exercise. Exercise doesn't burn a lot of calories--but it does improve your strength, stamina, and overall metabolism. I was successful exercising for an hour and a half, 5 or 6 days a week. I went for a 30 minute walk every morning, and I went to the gym for an hour in the afternoon and did cardio machines and weights, alternating.

Good luck!
Jay

Thanks, everybody, for the guidance! I will take your advice about the calorie count and check out some of those websites. See, I had no idea where to start so that's why I arbitrarily picked 1200 or 1300.

Previously, before getting pregnant, I was on a diet through a weight loss center. It's a local company so I haven't seen it mentioned here on 3FC, but it's similar to the Metabolic Research Center, I think, because I've read their threads here and the plan seems very similar. You have to eat only what they tell you to eat, and none of it is processed food (which is good, that's what I'm doing now). But the calorie count was awfully low. I think it started out at 1100 and then went down to 1000. I did great and never felt hungry; the food combinations I guess helped me there. But they said you don't have to exercise; what they should have said was you "shouldn't" exercise, because although I started out losing at a good pace, I decided I could lose more and tone up if I would exercise. As soon as I started using the treadmill, my weight-loss stalled and I'm sure it's because my calories were too low to sustain that.

So that's why I thought a couple hundred more would work, but maybe several hundred more would be better. I'll figure it out.

Thanks folks! I'm sure I'll be back here often with more questions, because as I said this is new to me. It's sort of a pain, though, writing down everything you do and looking up the calorie counts. I am not complaining because I know it takes hard work to lose weight, but does this part get any easier?

Websites like FitDay and The Daily Plate have calorie trackers where you just enter the food and the amount, and the tracker does the calculation for you and keeps a running total. It's really simple. You can also add foods in some cases, right off the nutrition label.

Jay

Hi! With my little experience with calorie-counting (I use FitDay now), a couple of things DO get easier.

First, I end up eating a lot of the same things, so I can just go to "recent foods" instead of looking everything up each time.

Second, related to the first one, is I am now a LOT better about estimating calories when I am out. For example, the other day I was at a Mexican restaurant and I took exactly 5 of the tortilla chips, knowing that that was a serving size, based on how large the chips were. I had a mental tally going with the whole meal that I entered in later (Side note: restaurants are HARD if they are not some chain that posts their nutritional info. You end up having to guess about a lot of the ingredients, such as how much oil, but I do the best I can and try to over-estimate rather than under-)

Third, I end up having to enter a lot of "custom foods" on FitDay. Maybe the Daily Plate or another is better about this ... but what is good is that once the information is entered, it is stored, so you can use it again and again.

I'm just starting with this as well - it is time consuming but I love knowing exactly what I have done for the day. I chose 1400-1500 based on stuff I had read here at 3FC. Hope this all works out for you!

I have learned so much about portion control since I started. I can much more determine now without weighing on a most of the things I eat everyday, however there are some items that I still weigh, but yes it has gotten easier for me determining what a serving really is.

Pas de Chaton, I'd definitely suggest at least trying 2000 first, and then lowering from there. I still eat 2000 a week and am losing 2 pounds a weekish (I weigh 187 now, which is less than you currently) so you might lose quite a bit on 2000. If you're not getting great losses, try lowering to 1800, etc, until you find a good number. Sometimes if you start lower you won't lose at much than if you actually ate more, but you'll never know if you don't try eating more at first and experiment. For your body, 2000 might be good, 1800 might be good, 1700, or 1600, etc. Only experimenting can tell. But if it was up to me, I wouldn't make your upper limit for experimentation too low, so you actually know how much you'd lose at 2000 a week, etc.

mypyramidtracker.gov is excellent for this. Will take into account your height, weight, and age, and if you enter your physical activity it will even adjust the number of calories for that day.