Hi everyone, new here and starting the adventure of losing weight. I have what seems like a pretty dumb question, but I honestly don't know and figured this would be the best place to ask.

If you're looking at counting calories, how do you know what a "good" range is? I'm 218 lbs at 32 years old, and I want to get down to 130. I figured a range of 1200-1600 would be good, but I don't know, and I heard that you can actually hurt weight loss efforts by not eating enough. I'm going to be doing probably 30 - 45 minutes on the stationary bike or other exercise 4-5 times a week.

Any advice would be appreciated. I really want to lose the weight.

This is not a dumb question, not at all. All calorie counters deal with this issue at least once in their weight loss journey.

I often answer but I usually forget one of the basics. "Eat less, move more".

There's a wonderful site called fitday.com. It's free. If you can figure out how much you have been eating in order to get to 218, all you have to do is cut. For instance if you are eating 2700 calories and staying 218, then theoreticly if you cut 500 cals each day (total 3500 per week) you'll lose one pound. So your goal would be 2200 cals.

There's also the "rough idea" which is my favourite. Multiply your ideal weight by 13 ... 130 lbs x 13 = 1690 cals per day.

There are also calculators and things on the internet but you are going to find that it's mostly trial and error. You can start low and find that you are weak and tired and so have to raise the amount. You can start too high and find you're not losing. You'll have to tweak as you go.

Exercise usage adds another element of confusion. That might be better discussed later

Ask more questions. And Welcome!

Everyone has a different metabolism due to their age, current weight, activity level, and so forth, so everyone loses at a different calorie level. Some can lose weight at 1800 calories a day, and for others they have to eat 1300 calories a day. You simply have to decide what works for YOU.

Start out at the higher end for a week at 1700-1800 calories, and weigh in after a week. If you lose a pound or more, then you are at the level that works for you right now. If you don't lose, then drop it down a little to1600-1700 the next week, until you find the level that has you losing about 1-2 pounds per week on average.

The more you weigh, the more calories you can eat and lose weight, so I recommend this method rather than starting out at 1200 a day-because as you lose weight, you will need to drop your calories over time to continue to lose-so it is best not to start out at the lowest end.

I started out at 1800 a day, and now I am at the point where I eat about 1400-1500 a day, with a couple days of 1200-1300 cycled in here and there.