I know there is a formula out there.. I just forget it. Something like to lose 1 lb a week you have to reduce your overall calorie intake by 700 calories? (or exercise off that amout)...
I'm trying to figure out how many calories I need to lose weight. I know there is a formula (or web site) that will tell me how many calories I need to maintain (based on my current height, weight, age) - then I would subtract the 700 calories for the week.???

Does this make sense to anyone?

Thanks!!

Dana,

One pound equals 3500 calories, so to lose a pound per week you need to burn 500 calories more per day than you eat (500 cal. X 7 days = 3500). You can do this by cutting your calorie intake and/or adding exercise.

However, how many calories that means for you depends on your body. There are lots of calculators that can give you an idea of how many calories you should consume (google "calorie intake calculator"), but it seems that they give very high estimates. For example, if I input my stats (25 yo female, 213 lbs, 5'10", moderately active), they tell me I should eat anywhere from 2100-3200 calories per day! Yet through my own experimentation I've found that if I want to lose weight consistently I should eat 1300-1400.

You can use the online calculators (or figure out how many calories you eat on a daily basis and subtract 500 calories per day) to give you an estimate, but my best advice is to listen to your body. If you're eating 2000 calories or so per day now, try eating 1700 and doing some extra exercise for about a week, then see the results. If you don't lose anything, try 1500 calories, and so forth and so on. It's a puzzle each one of us has to figure out. The calculators and formulas can help, but no one knows your body better than you do.

~Elisha

miss elisha gave you some great advice.

What I did when I first started counting calories was to just log EVERYTHING I ate for one week. That included pigging out on cake and ice cream, chocolate, whatever. I needed a base to start from. After that I just reduced that amount by 500. (I was eating around 3000 a day ) Then I continued to reduce them until I was eating between 1500 and 1700. HTH

I don't even remember where I found this formula but I read somewhere long ago that if you multiply your current weight by 13 it will give you a rough estimate of the number of calories you need to maintain - then subtract 500 to 1000 for a 1 to 2 pound loss each week. There are different multipliers for various activity levels but I've always just used 13 regardless of how much exercise I am doing. It has always worked for me (amazingly!) and I still periodically access my current weight.

Again, a certain amount of experimentation will probably be necessary but it is at least a place to start.

Elisha is absolutely right. I also totally agree with Dawnyal's suggestion to journal what you're eating now without restraint. If you see a crazy big number, it might prove to further energize and motivate you to make more positive changes.

thanks ladies..
Anything around 2000 right now would be a huge improvement!

I'm sure I was around the 3000 mark - with plenty of fat!