hello im new to 3FC and a healthy life. I want to eat healthy and be at a healthy weight. but all the calorie calculators on the web keep telling me different info. can someone please tell me what i should be doing?

at the moment. i am:
height: 5' 8"
weight: 249
eating: 2000 calories a day.


please help!

Take a deep breath, that's number one.

The idea behind the calorie deficit is to eat fewer calories than you burn in a day. If you have something like an iphone, I'd recommend the LoseIt app (it's free). I'm sure there are similar free programs on the web. The idea is that you input your height, weight, age, gender, goal weight, and how quickly you want to lose, and it will tell you how many calories you should consume in a day.

My recommendation to you would be to try a plan for 1-2 weeks and see if it's something you can stick with. If not, try something else.

Some general good ways to start:

* Cut out the refined sugars and carbs (no white breads, white rice, soda, etc.)

* Eat lots of lean protein

* Eat your veggies

* Drink lots of water

* Start doing a little bit of physical activity, building it up gradually -- even if it's just going for a walk.

* Keep a log of what you eat, how much, and the calories. There are lots of sites on the web that will give you the calories for basic things like meats and veggies, and all packages have nutrition info on the side/back. Pay attention to portion sizes. At first, try to eat around maybe 1500-1600 calories a day, then bring it down.

* Most of all, don't try to do everything all at once. That's a great way to get discouraged.

Keep posting here, and check out what others have said. Not every plan works for everybody, but people here do find what they need (just check out the goals section for some inspiration!). We're all here to help and support you.

Good luck!

Okay...the first thing you should do is find a BMR calculator online...this is a good one. >> http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ << it will probably give you something just above or below 2,000 calories.

A calorie deficit is how you lose weight. If you want to lose a pound a week you need to consume 3,500 less calories a week then you burn. If you want to lose 2 pounds a week, it would be 7,000 less then you burn.

Take the number that the BMR calculator gives you and multiply it by 7. That gives you your calorie burn for the whole week. Then subtract that number from either 3,500 or 7,000 depending on if you'd like to lose one or two pounds a week...and that negative number will be your calorie deficit. That is how many fewer calories you need to eat then your BMR in order to lose weight. Divide that calorie deficit by 7 (so it is split up into 7 days), and then subtract what you get from your original BMR (the amount for just one day before multiplying it by 7). That will tell you how many calories you can consume and still lose one or two pounds a week.

At least, I think that's right. I'm not a calorie counter, I do Weight Watchers, so I might be mistaken. That's just my understanding of it.

I hope this helps =D

Edit:
I forgot to add...if you exercise more, you need to eat more...and you should NEVER go below 1200 calories a day, because that will put your body into starvation mode and you'll gain weight not lose it. Sometimes it takes people a while to figure out a number that works for them. Some people lose weight better with smaller calorie deficits and some people lose it better with bigger ones. You're going to have to adjust it to your body. If you were eating 1200-1500 calories a day, I would probably suggest that you up your calorie intake...but if you were eating 2200 a day you would probably need to lower it. Some people have more muscle then other people, and that also affects it too. People who have more muscle burn more calories...so they need to eat more. It all depends on your individual body.

At your weight without exercise you figure 2500ish calories is what you burn in a day.

Then say you want to lose a pound a week, then you'd need to have a deficit of 3500 calories per week or 500 calories per day. So you'd eat 2000 calories a day instead of 2500.

If you exercise you can burn a bit faster say 1.5-3 lbs a week just depending on your body

thank you! lol it is so overwhelming lol. im going to need to remind myself to start slow lol.

This is not accurate. Going to low on calories is a bad idea for a variety of reasons but starvation mode is a myth. When you restrict calories your body does slow down your metabolism but this happens whether you go below 1200 calories or not depending on a multitude of factors but at most you'll see a 10-15% reduction in BMR and usually a lot less. I don't reccomend it but there is a large number of people who have lost a lot of weight quickly following the IP diet and they start out eating 500-600 calories a day.

Bottom line: you will not gain weight by restricting calories too much. Tell that to the people who actually are dying of starvation.

i see thank you

it did thank you!

thank you for your comment. but correct me if im wrong. that low of calories seems very unhealthy wich is why it would be called sarvation? correct?

That low calories is probably more unhealthy because of things like not getting enough nutrients and healthy fats and protein, which you need for nice stuff like cell repair and brain function and heart health and so on, rather than because of the calorie content itself or slowing down your metabolism. People might feel like they're starving It might also mean you want to think about your attitude towards eating if you are constantly aiming for really low calories too, I mean if you're really paranoid about it and are only having an apple, or around 100 cals a day, that might be a sign of something going wrong. Starvation mode is something a bit controversial.

The way I started out was I logged everything i was eating before I dieted and reduced it by 500 cals, by replacing some of the junk with healthier options, like the ones Ferumba suggested. And I just kept reducing by 500 until I started to loseAnd then I started to lose, but if i hadnt i would have just continued to reduce by about 100 cals a week or so to see where I needed to be eating at. Its just another way of going about it

OK.. to clear up the Starvation myth, and the whole 1200 cals and never gonig below it thing

Some people HAVE to go below it to lose fat. and you know why? Because their body has metabolically adapted to a certain number of calories and has learned to run off of what you give it. This is what people are talkin gabout when they say your body "goes into starvation" and you wont lose weight. Whats really ahppening is that youve prob been dieting l;ong enough that your metabolism has adapted to RUN off off 1200 a day, thus you are no longer in a deficit, though you should be. SOme sysmptoms of metabolic adaptation: loss of menstruatioon, a lower resing )ambient HR), slowdown of hair growth/nail growth, being cold all the time.
Basically your body take s the calories you give it, and allocated it out firs t to the necessities and everythign else gets short-changed...that is how metabolic adaption works. Generally people who have been dieting a long-tim, or have yo-yoed alot have this problem more than others.