I need help!

I've been reading some posts. You all are doing great!! I have to admit I look at goal pictures and I get a bit depressed cuase I just dont' think I can do it. But I must!!
I have at least 50# to lose. That would take me to about 160. I'm 5'8". So I think that is a good weight for me.
I'm rather sedentary but am taking chances I get to walk a bit farther than I need to-like parking farther away, etc.

anyway back to my question about calorie counting.

How did you get started? Did you have a book? A daily meal plan that you went by?
I'm thinking about 1500-1600 cals for me.

I would appreciate any advice, etc.
I'm going to keep browsing here.

i just ate what i thought was healthy, then look it up and log it on fit day. many sites to choose from. as i went along i realized i was eating more fat or other things than i thought, then i would adjust it the next day. eat less sodium or less rice etc. it's easier to do if you make your foods ahead, portioned out.

Hi Oh- I just joined 3C today, but seems like I've been dieting for a lifetime.
I found that if I lowered my calories too abruptly, my body holds on to the fat more. I tend to lose in the first week then nothing for a while.

Perhaps you could try lowering to 1700-1800 for a week or two first. then drop another 100 for a few weeks, until you get to 1500. I've been doing this the last 5 weeks and found I lost 5 pounds of pure body fat!

I use caloriecount.com to count the calories coz its free. But there are also diet journals at the bookstore and of course phone apps.

For my calorie-counting, I set up an Excel spreadsheet with columns for each nutrition metric I want to track (calories, fat, carbs, protein, etc.). Then in each row I enter what I ate, getting the information from either the nutrition data on the package or looking it up at caloriecount.about.com. I have one spreadsheet for each month and use a new sheet for each day. I'm careful to weigh/measure everything so I know exactly the serving size that I'm eating. This is a little tedious at first but once you have all the foods you normally eat entered it's just a matter of copying and pasting the data from day to day. I also do the same thing when I follow recipes in a separate spreadsheet, and just calculate what one serving size is and copy that over to my daily tracking. I like doing the counting myself in Excel more than using online trackers because I have more control over the entries and how the data is processed (I sometimes make charts and graphs). It's also much easier than using paper because you can copy/paste/edit.

If you are a iphone user, try out the app MyNetDiary. That made calorie counting so easy for me.

When I started, I did not make any changes to my diet for 2 weeks. I simply started logging everything I ate in the above mentioned app. As I kept logging, I just came to know that I am eating a lot of calorie dense foods for snacks. Then I cut those down. After that If I had time, I do meal planning. Or else I just play it by the ear and eat whatever I can get but log everything.

So, it keeps aware of how many more cals I have left for the day. If by lunch, I have used up 1200 calories (I try to stay under 1500), I will have very light evening snack and an omelets and big salad for dinner. If I am really hungry, I eat a normal dinner and try to stay @ maintanence level calories (1800)

Keeping track of the calories is the most important thing.

We are very close in height and I started counting calories when I weighed 196, so we're pretty similar. I pretty much just started by jotting down everything I was eating one day as well as the calorie count that I saw on the label. From there, I went online and visited a few calorie calculators to see what their estimate of calories was for me at my current height and weight. I don't think any online calorie counters are 100% accurate because everyone's lifestyle is so different as far as exercise/work, etc, so I just kind of averaged them all out to one range.

For me, I tend to eat between 1650-1850 calories per week. I change it up because some days my body feels like it needs to eat more, while other days I am satisfied after hitting around 1700 calories. Plus, in my mind, I think it keeps my body guessing because I'm not eating the exact same calorie amount every single day. I lose about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds every week at this calorie range, but I work out 4-5 days a week. So, you could always higher and see what happens after a few weeks, and then you can go down in calories if you aren't losing any weight. But, you don't want to go too low because as you start to lose weight, it is going to be harder to lose based on the amount of calories you are currently eating, so you might need to drop your calorie amount later on to continue to lose.

Hi Patty

Here is a good place to start. I found this info very helpful

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/1821967-post2.html

Alos, I use the site loseit.com to track my daily calories and exercise and I love it.

Best of luck!

I agree with WillGetHealthy. I would just eat normally for the first few weeks but write it all down or enter it all into fitday, spark people or daily plate (i have used all and i like daily plate best). Once you have an idea of what you normally eat, aim to lower it by 250-500 calories per day. Everyone is different so there isn't a magic number. You just have to keep track of your numbers and adjust if necessary.

Good luck! You can do it!!!!!!!

I plan in advance (cook once bi-weekly), and jot everything down right here at 3FC! See siggy below I post pics of everything...that makes it FUN and keeps me accountable. I too am about your height and was about your starting weight (209) and have lost 50 lbs since September 6, 2010. YOU..CAN..DO..THIS!

I think the amount of calories you chose for yourself is great, especially since you say you are not that active, (YET!!!). Also, if you are anything like me, you just want to jump in and start losing weight and not continue eating the way you are for a minute longer.

When I started I used a date book and a pencil. (Actually, I still do this even now.) Any foods I was unsure of the calories count I looked up on-line in several different free calorie counters. I tried to follow the food pyramid as a guide to make sure I got the proper nutrients. Later I realized the food pyramid seemed a little carb heavy for me, so I reversed the protein and carbs to make it a bit lower in the starchy foods department. Little by little I discovered foods that were less calories and kept me full for longer periods of time (veggies) and found that most processed foods made me crave more crap and made me feel hungry faster.

Good luck! Keep us informed of your progress!

I'm a calorie-counting convert! Others have already stated this advice but I will echo it. Sign up for a free online calorie counter and just start logging your food. It is ten times easier than doing it in a food journal and looking up calorie counts in a book. If you're like me, you'll be really surprised how many calories you are intaking unknowingly. Once you get the swing of things, including a 'my favorites' or 'most often used' list of ingredients/foods/meals, it's becomes extremely easy to count.

After a while you'll have a good mental sense of what and how much you should be eating per day to stay in your calorie range. Then you can start focusing on macronutrients- how much protein am I getting? Is too great a percentage of my calories coming from carbs?- and micronutrients- how's my calcium and fiber intake?

Good luck!

THank you all so much! This has been great.

So, I'm goign to take the advice to keep track of everything I eat for a week, go from there.

I also printed off the post that Lauren gave-"How many calories should I be eating?". THat is a great post.

Thank you again.

I only started counting calories on Monday so I am very new but what I did was just decide this is what I was going to. I wanted to stay under 2000 calories a day so I figured I would just plan my meals and see where I go. Monday I was at 1700 calories and now the past 2 days I have been under 1500. I never thought I could eat under 1500 and be happy LOL

Good luck to you! Its really not hard to do. I have my blog where I post everytime I eat in the day and I total up the calories there. I haven't been calculating the fat and sodium or anything but hopefully thats ok lol