Hi, I'm new here and was wondering if anyone could give me any advice. I'm starting on a diet, nothing fancy, just reducing calories in hopes of losing 15 or so pounds. I've read that to lose about a pound a week, you should cut out 3,500 calories a week from your recomended ammount. But it's really confusing. Everywhere I look, recomendations are different, the different activity levels are vague, I don't know what number to subtract my 3,500 from. And then I've read that if you restrict calories too much, you don't lose and you actually store more fat, especially when you try to eat normally again. Yet I really should lose a little weight to be healthier. I just don't know where to begin. If anyone has any suggestions or knows about any good websites that explain this, I would really appreciate the help. Thanks! - Gabrielle

Here's another way to look at it. You need to subtract 500 calories per day from what you normally have been eating. The best way would be to forfeit 250 calories of food and do some exercise that would burn off 250 more calories. For example if you drink canned soft drinks they are about 140 cals each so you could eliminate those, or a 140lb. woman doing 20 mins. of yoga would burn an estimated 112 calories.

Here are some good websites (in addition to 3FC, of course!) to help you get started.

This web site helps you figure how many calories you need:
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

Many of us use http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/Index.html just to get an idea of how many calories we are taking in.

http://www.healthyweightforum.org
This site is a peer education based forum offering support, motivation, recipes and fellowship for those interested in reaching and maintaining a healthy weight.

This one gives you an idea of how many calories an exercise will burn off:
http://www.caloriecontrol.org/exercalc.html

I hope all this helps. Good luck.

I started journalling my food on www.fitday.com so I could see just how many calories I was taking in. You'd be amazed at how quickly I could get up to 3000-4000 calories a day. I couldn't believe I was taking in that many. So I cut back to no more than 2000 calories a day. Then 1800, 1700 and now 1600. I'm now going to go down to 1500 a day.

Hi Gabrielle,

I also have to lose around 15 lbs. I have tried lots of diets, but can't seem to stay with them for the maintenance stage. Anyway, I got a book 90/10 weight loss and it seems like a good program. The author has three calorie programs -1200, 1400, and 1600. Im following the 1400 calories. The plan allows for "fun foods" like ice cream etc but they can only be a serving of 250 calories.
Anyway im trying it out.
Hope this helps.
Danielle

Wow, thanks so much, a broad abroad. Those sites look great! The first one especially is just what I was looking for, and they're all so informative... now that I know what I should be doing, I have no more excuses for not being good!