Weightloss Wednesday: How Many Calories Should I Eat?

When I began my weight loss journey I didn't know where to begin. How does one lose weight? It's not rocket science, right? I've heard many different ways. Like padlocking your mouth and throwing the key away :) The point is, to lose weight, you have to eat less calories than you burn. Or start off by changing your diet piece by piece. Switch out soda & high sugared fruit juice for water, eat one piece of cake instead of the whole thing, if you go out to McDonalds or whatever order a salad or a grilled chicken burger WITHOUT making it a combo. These are sure fire ways to help you start on your weightless journey.

When I first started out losing weight I tried playing around with daily calorie intake needs and it started me off at eating 6 meals a day equaling out to 1600 calories, and I did 1-2 hours of exercise daily. I GAINED weight within my first week. I looked even more like a beached whale and I died a little on the inside. There is so much that your CI depends on. Whats your weight, height, age, gender, BMI, BMR, etc... Because everybody is different and unique that everyone's CI will be a lot different. Same as if you start off at 200lbs (like me) I had to eat 1200 calories to start off with to create a calorie deficit to actually lose weight whereas now im 145lbs and I eat 1400 calories to keep losing my weight. Weird huh? This site is what helped me and is very useful is a DAILY CALORIE NEEDS calculator. Plug in your information and get going :P

The site said I needed to eat 2099 calories (which I nearly gagged) to maintain my current weight, 1679 calories for fat loss, and 1260 for extreme fat loss. So I came to a median between the two and stick to 1300-1400 per day :) It also gives you this really cool 7 day calorie cycle (the zig zag), and also has meal plans for all calorie needs and shows you what the meals should look like that your eating.