I am confused by how many calories I can eat. If anyone has any idea how many I should be eating, I would be very grateful to hear it. I am 5'5 and weigh 160. (I am 18) And how many can be added for exersize??? Can you even do that??? See I said I was confused. I have been told to do 1,500, then someone told me to do 1,200. I even heard that 800 was OK. ?????

Welcome!!

I would say a good starting place is 1700. Try that for a week or two and if your not happy with the results then try 1500. I try to keep my intake between 1200 and 1700 although more often than not I'm right about 1500. You should never go below 1000 without a doctors supervision. I know at least 2 days this week I struggled to hit 1000 but I was really sick so I didn't worry too much about it.

As far as exercise I wouldn't add any calories to compensate for how much your exercising. Exercising is going to help you drop the weight faster but if your burning 300 calories a day and then adding that 300 back in with food then you might as well have not exercised at all. That's just my opinion others may have a different one.

1200 is really the bare minimum unless your are being medically supervised. I stay around the 1200 cals and typically have been loosing 8-10lbs per month. But that is also without exercising. I just began implementing some treadmill walking into my life. So I would say you should probably aim between the 1200-1500 cals/day and see how that goes. Just remember, the weight didnt come on overnight, nor will it go away overnight.

Ambabs, I agree that exercising to burn 300 cals/then adding it in as food defeats the purpose, since the way you loose weight/fat is by having a calorie deficit, X consumed- X burned better be a negative number or you will maintain or gain.

So 1200 eaten - 1300 burned = -100 towards loosing weight

I try to stay between 1200 and 1600 a day. It varies from day to day and I think thats good so my body doesn't get use to it.

Here's a website with a Daily Energy Expended calculator:
http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/dee

Select your gender, your age, height and weight and it will tell you how many calories your body burns each day to keep you at the weight you are at.

To stay at the weight you are currently at, eat approximately that amount of calories. To lose weight, eat fewer calories than the amount shown. To lose a pound, you need to burn at least 3500 calories more than you've eaten.

For example, if your body burns 2000 calories per day to keep your body functioning, multiply that number by 7 (seven days in a week) to get 14,000. Now subtract 3500 (for one pound) from that number to get a weekly calorie intake of 10,500. Divide that number by 7 (days of the week) to find out your daily caloric intake of 1500 calories to lose one pound a week.

Kimberly

In the end it comes down to trial and error. Everybody is different. You'll need to adjust your calories and exercise until you get the results that you're looking for.

Yes! It is PERSONAL so all of our advice here is just that...advice and suggestions, but you'll need to see how your own body does. I have to say that I *do* add back in my exercise calories (sometimes I eat them, sometimes I don't, but they're "available" if I get hungry). The thing is, I set my daily calorie limit at 1500 which is enough to guarantee me--with my very own personal metabolism--a 1-2 pound weight loss. I don't want to lose much faster than that, hence I add back in the exercise calories.

Also, the thing with exercise is that you often get an "afterburn" which means that while you can calculate based on age, activity, intensity, etc. approximately what you burn while PERFORMING the exercise, the sheer fact that you've exercised gives your body a push and your metabolism will continue functioning at a higher level, burning more calories, for possibly several hours after you finish the activity (again, this is personal and also dependent on the type, extent and duration of exercise).

Since I don't feel like I can every know EXACTLY what I'm burning on a given day (Lord, save me from my hormones!), I do know that on occasions when I am feeling desperately, ravenously hungry (and not just food lust, but actual stomach churning, makin' me dizzy and my hands shake hungry) I will go ahead and add in about 500 calories for the day (basically, an extra meal). For myself, I have found that often when I do that I actually DROP more weight than expected that week--and definitely than I would expect if I just run the numbers. So....again, bottom line is that you pick a place to start, and then your body becomes a bit of an experiment of one as you learn what works and what doesn't.

Good luck and welcome to the community!