Hello Im a newbie here and I was going to start dieting ... today! I just had my second baby 4 weeks ago and Im ready to get the weight off. I was going to try calorie counting but wasnt sure how many calories a day I should have? I dont really know which diet to start out on so I thought I would try this one. Thanks....

Let me see ... 171 lbs? Do you remember what you ate yesterday?

Hello. I have been very successful with cal counting. This link is what I go by:

1. Womens Nutrition Health Guide Calculator

This link is awesome! It really helped me to understand how many cals my body needs to maintain and how many cals I need to cut to lose. It has been working like a charm and I have lost 10 pounds in October since starting to follow it!!

2. Fitday

Another great find. I am losing by counting calories and this thing is usually the first place I go to every day. I usually keep the window open and it helps me decide what to eat, what to eat less of or whether or not I can have a treat. VERY helpful in keeping track of calories!

Look at what the maintenance is and then I reduce it by 500 a day on average. I also walk 60 - 90 minutes a day but that is something you need to work up to if you are not already doing it. You are welcome to come join our support group, the link is in my sig. Good luck!

*giggles* I was waiting for you to show up and save the day, Jasmine!

I love that page, too.

Really it is a matter of trial and error along with being honest about portion sizes/what goes in your mouth.

There are times I lose on 1800-2000 calories a day and recently I'm losing on 2200 calories a day. You may lose on 1500 calories a day.

It's all individual and can vary in the time that you are trying to lose weight. Reading labels and eating true one servings of foods is a great start. I also found that eating more unprocessed foods helped aid weight loss as well.

honestly its a matter of your own body. I am 5foot 3 and 150 pounds, and a teenager. According to most sites and charts i should be able to eat over 2000 calories in order to maintain my weight. If i eat more than 1200-1500 i gain weight. I have a very sensative metabolism. But one thing everyone agrees on is to make sure you eat enough cals. I try and make sure i eat at least 1200 cals daily. So for you id say eat at least 1500. So, you just have to figure out how many cals ur body uses. its a trial and error thing. Good luck

And are you nursing your baby? Add 500 calories/day if you are. La Leche recommends no less than 1800-2000/day for nursing moms.

My baby will be 8 weeks on tuesday, I am right now aiming for 2000-2200, will reevaluate as I go to keep weight loss going but not too fast while nursing. (I run too)

Well don’t remember everything I ate yesterday but so far today was:

Bfast- Raisin bran crunch w/ skim milk

Lunch- ham cheese sandwich with some grapes & water

Dinner- I know bad first day... but 2 slices of plain cheese pizza.

Then I just drank water all day ....what do you think any advice?

no im not nursing anymore I did for the first week and half but ran into a lot of problems with one of my breast and it dried up... so Im not nursing anymore.

Do you have a fitday account? You could put all that for today in and see where you sit calorie-wise. I's a good place to have a look and start cutting.

We'll be here to coach you along.

can there really be 2500 calories in just 2 slices of cheese pizza!!!???

Maybe you selected the info for 2 WHOLE pizzas instead of 2 slices...would double check -- at least on fitday that is pretty easy to do. You may have to do some fractions to figure out a slice because they don't have slice info for all of the pizza sizes.

If you feel up to entering a "custom food" in FitDay (it can be a pain, but sometimes it's helpful), http://www.calorieking.com has nutritional info for a lot of brand names.

www.fitday.com is awesome for free tracking but www.calorieking.com is awesome for quick broad access to calories of all foods.

I just journal the calories on paper and look it up on calorieking. After a while you will know what foods have certain amounts of calories and it will be easier.

Not enough veggies and fiber...thats the first thing I would notice.