How many calories do I need?
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How many calories do I need?
| Fri, 01-21-2005 - 5:56pm |
Hello! this is my first time posting. I'm 30 with three children ages 1, 4, and 6. I am 5 feet tall and weigh 140 pounds. I would like to get down to 105 pounds but I get conflicting information on how many calories I should take in to reach my goal weight. Does anyone have a good source to go to? I would also love to find a website that counts calories of many foods. I'm having trouble losing the weight I gained while pregnant (and some I gained before the last pregnancy). I'm worried that my metabolism is slowing down too, as I keep hearing it does after 30. I hope I lose this weight soon.
Kim


Hi and Welcome to the board Kim!
I'm doing a search for a couple of posts we've had in the past about how many calories we should eat- though this often differs from person to person. There is a couple of quizzes around you can do to help determine it aswell, and Miranda has a very complicated formula to do-- I'll see if I can find that too.
In the meantime try www.fitday.com to help count your daily caloric intake.
Here's an old post with both a quiz and a formula-
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-fbfitthirty/?msg=8494.1
Hope that helps- and once again, welcome!
:~:~: Moderation is Key :~:~:
Getting Fit In Your 30's
cl-vi_islandgirl
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Hey Kim!!
Thanks for the welcomes. Miranda, I am not muscular at all, unfortunatly. When I was 17 I weighed 93. I know I won't get down to that again in my lifetime, but it was probably my best shape I was ever in because I exercised every day and ate well. I will be very happy when I'm close to 130, like you are. Hopefully soon enough. :)
Kim
Hi Kim!
This is my first time posting as well.
As far as a website that counts calories of foods, you should try www.fitday.com. You sign up for a free account (or you can pay and download it to your own computer) and enter what you've eaten each day. The website has a HUGE list of foods, almost everything I eat is on there and it is very easy to use.
For counting calories, I was also looking for a good judge on how much to eat.
What I found is:
655.1 + (9.56 * (weight * 0.45)) + (1.85 * (height * 2.54)) - (4.68 * age)
(weight in pounds, height in inches, age in years)
This will give you the number of calories your body burns each day by just existing (breathing, digesting, heart pumping, etc.).
Then to figure out what how many calories your body burns during the day with all of the movement and activity you do, multiply the number you just got by:
1.2 if you're pretty sedentary, mostly sitting, almost never exercising
1.375 if you do some light activity each day and exercise about 1 time per week
1.55 if you do moderate activity and exercise about 3 times per week
1.75 if you are extremely active all day at your job and also exercise almost every day
1.9 if you are a professional athelete
You want to eat enough calories so that you don't go over the amount you just calculated, but also be careful not to go too far under that number because not eating enough will cause your metabolism to slow down even more.
Hope that helps!!
Katy
Hello and welcome, Kim and Katybug!!
I didn't have anything to add about calories, looks like you all got the info in the thread.
Hi! Just a day after posting, I caught the stomache bug that my daughter had. Then, after that went through me and my three kids....I and the baby got the flu! Now the flu is over, but the next day I caught a cold! No kidding. It's been non stop and this is common for us in the winter ever since my oldest started school. But I'm feeling better each day and hope that the worst is behind us this season! I wanted to say hello to those that said hi...and I really appreciated the input. I ordered the FitDay software and I love it! I'm eating 1500 calories a day because I am nursing my 18 month old still. Otherwise I would be at 1250. The first week of doing this (last week) I had two days where I couldn't eat anything (tummy bug) and when I weighed last Monday I had lost 6 pounds. So I'm at 137 right now. I'm still not sure if I'm eating too many calories. Last week is not one that I can really go by. This week will be more honest. This week also I have started walking 30 minutes a day at 3.0 speed on my treadmill. I've also been doing some toning floor work with 3# weights (I'm a weakling!). I plan to post often to this board. :)
Kim
Hey Kim, take it easy while you fight off all those nasty germs!!!
Miranda, I never even tried it online. It looks like it is very similar to the PC one. Because my husband and I are both doing this, I didn't want to have to sign in and out so that we could both enter our information. It's great though! Really easy to use. I like how I can customize things in the food log (enter in foods that we use that are not listed). So it's been really great. It's fun to enter in our moods too! ha ha
Miranda,
I personally purchased the Fitday software about a year ago after using the online version for about 6 months. I think it was so worth the $20. You have so many more options, it is a lot more customizable, there is just a dramatic difference. Also, for those people that have dial up it is a huge time saver. You don't have to be online to use it.