I am new to this so I have what may seem like a silly question! How many calories should I consume in a day to keep losing weight?

I am 5'5", currently weigh 189.5. My goal is to be down to 150 by August, which averages out to 1 1/2 pounds per week. I have a desk job, so nothing burned there. I do walk for about 20-30 minutes per night on an eliptical plus have 5 kids so that keeps me busy all evening with housework, etc. I rarely sit down between getting off work and going to work.

Am I missing any information? Thank you for any input!

I put in your information at www.freedieting.com and I guessed that your 40 years old. I appologize if your not 40....but that was my guess with 5 kids. I based my calorie intake on their suggestions and it's working great for me. That website for YOU says:

Maintenance: 2505 Calories/day
Fat Loss: 2004 Calories/day
Extreme Fat Loss: 1512 Calories/day

This post http://bodybypizza.com/2008/12/help-...-fitness-guru/ on a blog i read is straight out of Jillian Michaels book. Its what I used to work out my calories...once i had my answer....i then google calorie counting sites and went to several sites to ensure they gave a similar figure. Doing this method i have lost 12 pounds in 2 weeks after having plateaud for the last 5-6 months

kazz =]

Interesting calculator, kkazz!

I came in slightly lower than on the other ones I've used but all have been within 200 calories of each other. I realize over the course of a week, that can be 1400 extra calories but I try to vary how much I eat and I stay at the bottom of my range some days anyway.

Howdy,
Calculators are a great place to start. One has to start somewhere, right? It takes some practice logging calories and such. After a week or so, you will start to have enough data about you to then make some intelligent choices about calorie counts.

Best wishes with whatever you chose to do.