[alteaon]

Hello, I am not sure if this was covered anywhere else, but with my poor detective skills, I couldn't find it. I am new to calorie counting. I had tried the point system w/ WW and it worked well, but I'm getting burned out. Calorie counting seems very simple and not so much like a fad ( not that WW doesn't work..) I was using the calorie calculator, and I am not sure which category I fall in for my general day. I normally go to the Y six days a week. I do at least fourty five minutes of hard cardio on the eliptical ( heavy breathing, very sweaty, high heart rate), then I do some weight lifting...on other days I don't weight lift but will do at least an hour to an hour and a half of hard cardio, sometimes doing some more moderate toward the end. How do I judge it? I don't want to accidentally give myself to high of a calorie allowance, nor do I want to cut myself too low, especially being that w/ exercising, I'll probably need a little more...any suggestions or guidelines that anyone else has used?

Thanks!

[LLV]

I would say very active.

[bobbidipity]

Hello. Are you using a method such as FitDay.com to track your calories and exercise? I initially looked at a couple different calorie calculators to give me an idea of what number to aim for, but different calculators told me different things, so I can understand your confusion. Are you looking at the calulator on this site? Some people think the 3FC calorie calculator gives you a high number, but you could start by selecting "Moderate Activity." My first few weeks of tracking calories on FitDay confirmed that the daily amount I was aiming for was both comfortable in terms of satisfying my hunger and producing a slow weight loss. As you track your calories, you will soon come up with a daily calorie goal that works for you ... because if you find that you are hungry or tired or not losing weight, you can tweak your goal until it is right.

[blues4miles]

I'd say just pick an amount of calories you think you can stick with. Maybe 1400 or 1500 since you are still trying to lose. You can always start higher (say maybe 1600-1800) and see if you lose on that. If you don't lose but you maintain, you know what you can maintain at (which is good to know) and drop it a few hundred calories for a couple weeks and try again. The calculators help, but it's really different for everybody.