i have always ran away from counting calories but i have now decided to make that step!!! i am going to try to get in about 1830 calories a day. according to the nutritional calculator i can lose a pound a week if i eat 1830 calories a day with no excerise, but i will be excerising so i wonder how effective that will be. i am posting my fitday link now also. fitday says i need to lose 2.5 pounds a week to hit my cruise goal. i'm trying and i have not given up yet!!!

I think counting calories is the "easiest" way to lose weight. Not that losing weight is easy. I was thinking a few weeks ago that I should switch to counting exchanges. Well DUH. In order to count exchanges, you still need to know the calorie content. For WW, you need calories, fat and fiber. Both of those require manipulating numbers. Counting calories is just that. My problem is that I haven't been counting or journaling. So... we went grocery shopping this weekend and I stocked up on fruits, vegetables and yogurt. I'm not really a fruit or veggie eater. I just don't think to eat them. 1800 calories is my target as well. Actually, I can eat between 1800 - 2000 calories. I'm also hitting the fitness center three times a week.

Good luck!!

Kimberly

I try to keep my daily average for the week between 1800-2000. I think it's been a little lower lately, but not dangerously low. I use my daily average for the week as my goal amount rather than eating the same amount every day...gives me a little more versatility without feeling guilty on the days I eat a little more nor fearing slowing my metabolism on the days I eat a little less.

The only suggestion I will make to you is that you take any online calculators with a grain of salt. There are so many factors that go into how many calories you burn that 1830 may not actually produce exactly a pound lost each week for you. You'll have to play and tweak it a bit if you're not getting the results you want after a while. I used to think I could eat nearly 2500 calories a day because that's what the online calculators told me...nope!

Hi,
Not sure if you wanted people to be able to view your fitday, but if you do you have to go into the "Home" section on fitday, and select the option to make your journal public. Then, people will be able to view your fitday from the link. Otherwise, it just goes to a blank screen.

There's nothing like good old fashioned calorie counting as far as I'm concerned. I eat mostly low fat proteins, like white meat chicken, fish, egg white omlettes, soy products and yogurt and lots and lots and lots of veggies. But last night I had slice of pizza for dinner with a salad. I had left plenty of room for it. So with calorie counting you can add the occasional treat without "breaking your diet" so to speak. I would be wary of those calculators as well, you'll just have to do a trial and error kind of thing until you get the results you are after. Good luck to you.