I have never been one to really count calories..
When I diet I try to eat healthy.
I do look at how many calories are in food and just make a better choice.
But as far as counting them I have never really done that.
How many calories should you taken in?
I weigh 260..
( I have not been on the scales yet to see if I have lost anything yet
I am a little scared to look..My weight loss is always so slow I get mad and stop dieting because I never lose much)
How many calories you should consume is a factor of a number of things:
Your current weight
Your Height
Your Age
Your Gender
Your Current Level of Activity
There are a number of places to get a feel for what your caloric intake should be. If you click on the Diets tab on the top of this page, you'll see a link for Calculators. The calculator you'd want to use is called Daily Needs Calculator. That would be a good start. Enter your info and see what it says!
That will give you an indication of how many calories it currently would take to maintain your weight just as it is now. To lose, you'd want to drop that number. Current research says you probably shouldn't go much below 1,200 per day, so keep that in mind.
Oh, and by the way, congratulations -- you are making terrific progress. Just think, before yesterday, you were apprehensive just about *joining* a gym. Then you did it! Then you went back and actually worked out! And now you're starting to work on changing eating habits.
You go, girl! Look at how far you've come since yesterday! I'm proud of you!
When I first started this journey, I started just with exercise. Given my history with eating disorders, I told my husband, "If I ever start counting calories, start worrying about me." However, my early weight loss was very slow. After reading on 3FC about healthy ways to count calories and nutrients, I decided I would give it a try using this software called DietPower (many people use FitDay, which is free and works great, for the same purpose).
What I was very surprised to learn is that I obsessed about food LESS when I tracked it, only because I knew very well when I was within my daily calories. I also started losing a LOT faster (well, for me... I'm a slow loser in general). I know many people think tracking food is obsessive, but for me it was one of the most freeing things I ever have done, and I eat SO MUCH more healthily than I ever did before I tracked. I anticipate that I will probably use tracking at least periodically for the rest of my life.
As far as actual calories, when I weighed in the 200+ range, I usually consumed between 1700 and 1900 calories (with an average daily exercise expenditure of 500 or so calories, which is a lot), but I had to drop that gradually as I lost weight. Now I shoot for between 1300-1500. I would start at the higher end and see what works for you, then drop if you're not losing.
I'm a very loose counter. I too shoot for around 1500 a day at the moment, reduced from 1800, and I burn around 500 a day through exercise, most days. I have two rest days a week, and eat lighter on those days (except today - oops - pancake Tuesday on a non exercise day - not very good planning - except I only ate one, and the old me would have had eight!!!)
I digress, some people don't count at all, and do fine (YP1 is one who I know does this, but then she runs half marathons )
It's one of those things, do it if it works for you. I find food tracking makes me completely doo lally. I do it occasionally, when in a plateau, or if I am having particular issues, but not normally. I am in a pattern now where I know pretty much the calorie values of my regular foods.
I digress, some people don't count at all, and do fine (YP1 is one who I know does this, but then she runs half marathons )
'tis true, I don't count anything properly (except miles!). But it's a bit more complicated than that.
I do keep an eye on calories. I have developed an understanding of how many calories should be in a meal or a snack and I stick to them. So if I aim for between 300 and 500 calories for 3 meals plus a couple of 100 - 200 calorie snacks on some days I might be at the lower end on each of those meals (1100) and on some days I might be at the higher end (1900), but I don't pay too much attention to the exact numbers on any given day. I do adjust my intake throughout the day, so if I want a treat I scale back other meals.
Generally for tried and tested recipes I don't pay any attention to calories, because I know it works OK, but if I'm chosing a prepared meal, sandwich or snack I look at the nutritional information and use that sort of thinking to help me make a decent choice. Those numbers aren't fixed in stone, by the way, but I wanted to put some numbers on it to illustrate how it works.
I've always said that I might start tracking and adjusting my calories if I stop losing, but it hasn't happened so I just keep going like this. But the amount of exercise I do makes up for all sorts of sins (I ran 105 miles in February - together with doing weights, yoga and swimming) and I can imagine that for some people counting calories would be far less daunting than doing that!
Calorie intake
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