Hello everyone,
I am still fairly new to calorie counting and I am a little confused about how many calories I should be eating in a day. I mentioned this in my other post because I am frustrated that I have stalled several times already and I am only losing an average of a pound or less per week despite the dramatic changes I have made since November. I quit smoking a month ago and I exercise at least 3-5 times a week doing a 3 or 4 mile Leslie Sansone workout video and 20 minutes on my elliptical trainer during each session. I think I am burning about 400 calories in a workout but its a ballpark guess. I want to get a heart rate monitor with a calorie counter soon. I have been eating around 1300 - 1450 calories a day, sometimes less and occasionally around 1600. I am wondering if I am eating too little and it is stalling my weight loss. "Tom" was three weeks late last month and has not came at all this month yet (no chance of pregnancy) but I do spot sometimes after a workout. I wonder if I am in some kind of starvation mode or if my body is reacting to the stress of workouts because I used to be pretty inactive.
Anyway, I was hoping for some direction regarding my calorie intake so I can lose around 2 - 2.5 pounds a week. I am 28 and 5' 3" with a fairly large bone structure. I have big wrists, broad shoulders and large muscular calves. I also carry a lot of my weight around my middle, if these details means anything. My current weight is around 201 and I do have a slow metabolism. I am not sure how many calories to shoot for on days I don't exercise and days I do. Should I eat more on days that I exercise, and how much more? I am just confused and probably making it more complicated than it needs to be. I have a hard time trusting online calculators that tell me to eat anywhere from 1100 to 1900 cals a day! They don't even take into account my body type and metabolism level. I am pretty new to the whole thing and I want to give myself a good start. I would also love some insight on zig zagging my calories to boost my metabolism. It was slow to begin with and now that I quit smoking, its pretty bad.
Thanks so much for the help. Your replies really do mean a lot to me
Amanda