Can someone direct me on how to find the appropriate amount of calories for my goals? I know that there is some formula some where but I have found so many different sources online, I'm not sure what is what....

Part of the reason why there are so many conflicting sources is because there are so many conflicting methods and conflicting understandings about the science. Even beyond that, though, the efficacy of counting calories depends greatly on the accuracy of the counting, both of the intake and of the expenditure; many sources report recommendations based on an assumption that no one ever understates intake nor over-estimates expenditure, which others believe is an unreasonable expectation, and so their recommendations factor in an understanding of inaccuracy.

The program I used would advise women to eat 10 calories per pound they weigh to lose weight. Now that's perhaps fewer calories than folks need to be eating, but given their understanding of how inaccurate the average patient is in measuring their own intake (there are many studies on this), it represents what the program believes their patients need to aim for in order to be likely to eat the appropriate number of calories to lose weight.

So, that's a long answer to a short question, but hopefully it provides you a bit of context for all the conflicting information you're seeing.

a GOOD QUESTION!

hi livin. try this site www.dietitians.ca/eatracker. i've looked at the site but haven't tried it. glen

So how many is too few? I have been writing down everything I eat, and most days I am in the 1200-1300 range. According to your method, I should be eating 1700. So am I not eating enough? Since I started this method two weeks ago, I haven't really been voraciously hungry and I have lost 5 pounds so, so far, it seems to be working for me, but I don't want to do any damage to my body because I am not eating enough while I am trying to lose weight.

That 10 calorie per pound theory may seem alright if you weigh 170, but what if you weigh 300 lbs? That comes out to 3000 calories. Can't lose weight on that. One way I used is to find out how many calories you need tomaintain the weight you are then reduce that amount to lose weight. WebMD has a calculator which takes into consider your activity level as well as weight. That's a good place to start. Kdsduffter - I'd stay on what you're doing, maybe allowing a few extra calories once a week. As long as it's working and you're not having any ill effects, keep going. Congratulations on the 5 lbs.

Actually if you are 300 pounds you CAN lose weight eating a lot more than what say your or I need to. When I was at my highest weight of 211-I lost VERY easily at first eating 1800-2000 calories a day-with only about 20 minutes of exercise a few times a week.
So-at 300 pounds with some moderate exercise-some will be able to lose on that amount of calories at first. At 300 pounds I would recommend starting out at around 2500 a day-and it will start them losing rather easily in most cases.

Here is a page with some good calculators on it. When I put my info in, it said I could lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks by eating 1481 calories per day. That's right about the same as 10 calories per pound I weigh now, so I'd say that theory is correct.

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/livi...ant_yogurtdiet

Wow, they said I can chow down on 3100 calories a day... And here I thought dieting would be hard :smirk: Still think I'm going to try keeping it under 2500.