I've been trying to eat better for about 9 weeks now by eliminating some of the obvious evils from my diet - fast food, lollies, cakes etc. Also as a lot of people have suggested, I've been keeping a food diary and counting the cals. I've averaged about 1550 a day over this time, it would be a bit lower than that because I've had some big blowouts. Now I'm generally aiming for 1400 a day, which so far doesn't leave me starving or feeling bloated.

The problem is, I seem to be getting around 23% from protein, 10-12% from fat and 65% from carbs. Now obviously I am a big carb lover, but I do try and make sure they're from good sources - whole grain bread, weetbix, carrots/bananas or other fruit/veg and so on... but I was just wondering if this number (around 230g) is too high? I have been exercising for an hour (or more) every day but so far I have only lost a few pounds and my clothes are only a tiny bit looser. Could my high carb intake have anything to do with this?

I guess what I need is some tough love if I'm still not eating right - so please, how many grams of carbs would you suggest I aim for to start losing weight? Is 5-6 pieces of bread too much per day or does it not matter where my cals come from as long as long as I stick to my limits?

Thank you so much for any help!

Sounds fine to me, I lost weight and kept it off while eating 200 grams of carbs a day. It might be beneficial to slightly increase your good fats - right now you are eating 10% a day. Right now, I try to get at least 20-25% of my daily calories from good fats (like olive oil, natural peanut butter, nuts, avocado, salmon). I never paid any attention to carbs, but when I aimed for 30% protein (at least 100 grams a day), 20% healthy fat, the carbs ended up around 50-60% a day.

For me, it was a change that I had to be able to maintain my entire life. I couldn't give up/significantly reduce bread/pasta/rice/tortillas because they made up a big part of the foods I love. I like whole grain toast with peanut butter for breakfast, I like a cup of soup and a turkey sandwich for lunch, I like home made pasta sauce over 2 oz whole wheat pasta for dinner. I would have had to radically alter the way I eat to cut back and that would not have made me happy.

Everyone is different, but I really feel for me it didn't matter where my calories came from as long as I concentrated on healthy, whole foods. I needed to eat foods that I really liked in order to stick with it for the rest of my life!

I'm wondering the same thing. I just started FitDay, which by the way, rocks. I'm noticing that about 65 percent of my daily intake is from carbs. How many carbs are recommended? Does anyone know?

I would personally recommend 30% fat 20-25% protein and 45-50% carbs and see how you do. Yes try to make part of the fat not sat fat,, you know the good fats like olive oil, nuts, avocado etc. . I try to do 50/50. Transfat however is a big NO do NOT!

Womens health calculator

All our bodies are different so you may need to play with it a bit.