How many calories should I eat a day?

Question

I am going to be 21 in June.
I weigh 139 pounds and I am 5'3.
I want to weigh 120-125 pounds by June.
I am so depressed about my weight, I think I should try to lose it a bit quicker then June..Is that healthy?

Also I do not know if my tredmill is working properlly. How long should it take to run a mile on 5.0 and how many cals would the tredmil say you burned? I just want to test it out on mine to see the numbers I get.

Answer 1

Try this website called Sparkpeople. They will confingure a plan for you based on how much weight you want to lose and the date you want to lose it by. It gives you a range of calories to eat per day and amount you should burn each day through exercise. The plan is completely based on YOUR input and what works best for you. There are also recipes, workout plans, calorie and exercise trackers, articles, and a great support system. Best of all it's all FREE. I really love the site and don't think I would have been able to sucessfully lose weight without it. Best of luck to you!!!

Answer 2

Go get yourself a copy of The Ultimate New York Body Plan by David Kirsch! You will lose about ten lbs the first week of this two week "diet." I loved it! Intense, but statisfying! You do intense work outs every day & eat really good food (the book contains the work out plan & recipes for food). Check it out! Also, you don't need a treadmill or a stationary bike, just some 2-5 lbs dumbells, a medicine ball & stability ball ... it will all cost you less than $40. The key to this diet is that you are eating less calories than you're burning!! And you're still eating satisfying meals, five times a day. It's fabulous! I swear by it.

Answer 3

forget the calorie counting and concentrate on eating HEALTHY instead. sure, that may mean looking at the nutritional label on a few foods before you decide to have some, but look at all the numbers, fats, calories, sugars...all of it!

if you're concerned about being a little on the curvy side (which is what i'd consider you, by the numbers) concentrate on eating healthy well balanced meals, and exercise. do a bit of cardio (like your treadmill) and do some exercises that'll tone wherever your "undesired curves" are. ie. crunches/situps for the belly & abs, lunges for the legs, lift weights (don't be afraid to start REAL small) for the arms...you'll have things under control in no time.

forget about what the numbers are when you step on the scale, and consider your physical shape instead...muscle tissue is more dense than fat, so you may not technically lose weight by working out, even though you could drop more than a couple of sizes in clothing.

exercising & having a healthy well rounded diet is the best way to be sure that YOU'RE healthy, not by cutting out high-calorie foods, too many of your high cal foods that you'll want to cut out are also providing you with essential nutrients too...try cutting out the unhealthy cals & fats instead, like chips & candy...have some veggie sticks or an apple instead! skip the dip, use peanut butter! you'll be in better shape long before june if you just stick with it. you'll feel so good about yourself you'll head out and buy yourself a new bikini and book a week's vacation at the beach!

Answer 4

Don't worry about how many calories you eat, worry about how much exercise you get.

If your exercise is higher than your calorie input then you should be fine, try to eat healthy and not starve yourself. Remember that veggies and fruits are great for your metabolism (ie. broccoli is high in fiber), always keep hydrated and don't deprive your body of essential nutrients and good fats.

Remember to make your exercise fun, if you continually worry whether the treadmill is calculating your mileage correctly you won't feel good about exercising (don't make it a chore)
Also buy some dumbbells and work out your arms, you don't need to have large muscles u just need to tone them.
By the way if you do all this and you weigh your self and notice that your weight is not changing, don't despair. Your fat is turning into muscles.
Good luck

Answer 5

Remember it is winter, at least here it is and they say you should get more sun in the winter to offset the lack of daylight so forget the treadmill so much and get out and walk or run for a change. You will be surprised at how much better you feel about everything including being optimistic. Good luck and keep up the good work, only eat enough so that you feel moderately full.

Answer 6

go to http://www.sparkpeople.com
i'm 25, i weighed 140lbs at 5'5 and wanted to be down to 120 by april 30th. with the help of sparkpeople, they told me to eat between 1200-1550 calories a day. you input your goals and they determine what you should be consuming based on your info (and they even work in exersizes). i really dont stay in range, cause i'm not REALLY trying, and i never exersize, but i've lost 7lbs in 2 months. and thats with going out to dinner 2 times a week sometimes. but really check it out. its worth it. you can have them set up menues for you and even weekly grocery lists, or you can just put in what you eat and it will calculate how many calories it has. and you can put in how many minutes you ran and calculate how many calories were burned (since you dont trust your treadmill), and it has great lists of exersizes and strength trainning stuff (with your own body weight, no other equiptment needed if you dont have it)

your goals are increadable reachable. i mean, had i been exersizing for these past 2 months, i could have been about 128 right now, so 133 isnt too bad for sitting around on my butt eating pizza!! i just realize how badly i was eating before and its helped me slowly change. and its really not that hard.

Answer 7

2000

Answer 8

Okay....3,500 calories to burn one pound of fat
You keep a journal of your food intake..I think its highly important for you to see on paper the numbers of what you are taking in.

You buy a calorie counting watch..You take your total intake calories +3,500 add them together and THAT is what you need to burn everyday..to burn one pound.

If you start seeing the numbers I think it will help see that alot of what you might eat..may be uneccesary. You have to remember that your stomach and your intake of food at one meal sitting should be the size of your fist. It doesn't take much food to maintain your health. You can have 5 to 6 servings of healthy food the size of your fits over three regular huge meals. Your body is like a conveyer belt. You need a little at a time to keep everything moving. Good Luck

Answer 9

Here is the healthiest way to not only eat healthy, maintain a good weight but to also eat right & have lots of energy! They reccomend 5 smaller meals not 3 meals per day!

Answer 10

If your talking about using pills, then no. Don't eat more than 1200 calories a day. Also try to cut back on how many carbs you eat. If you do that , girl the weight will come off.