How do I know if I'm burning more calories than I'm eating AND losing weight???

Question

I'm 23, 5'1" and about 132 pounds. I really hate that number, and I'm trying to lose about 8 pounds. Although I should mention that that weight is not all over my body...its mostly, ummm, on my chest, so I guess that's good! My figure is actually pretty nice, but I want to tone up a bit.
I work out at the gym 3 days a week and I go on the Tredmil, Elliptical, Bikes, and/or Stairmaster. I also lift some weights with the big boys! Haha! I went to a cycling class just last night and I loved it!

Anyways, I'm watching what I eat, and I'm looking at the calories. They say you need to burn more calories than you eat and then you'll be losing weight. But how do I know how many calories I'm really burning everyday...at home, while working, sleeping, etc.??? Also, how can I count the calories of the food I make from scratch at home?
My clothes fits better, but I just wanna figure out this calorie stuff, so I can be a bit more precise.

Any suggestions? Thoughts?

Answer 1

Well as someone who diets and exercises I can tell you that you don't need an exact figure, you really just need a good estimate.

You said that you were about 132 pounds and that you are really active, which means that you probably need somewhere around 2000 calories a day to maintain your weight +/- 200 calories. So if I were you I would start out my diet by getting around 1800 calories in a day, and keep doing what you are doing at the gym. If you don't notice any weight loss in two weeks then decrease it to about 1600, but that's about as low as you'd want to go as active as you are.

Now remember also that you are active and you workout so you're going to have muscle mass increase as well which is going to slim you down and put on weight at the same time as strange as that sounds. So don't always go by what the scale says. If you only lose like 3 or 4 pounds in a month that is a GOOD thing. Go by what your body is looking like a lot of the time, not just by what the scale says.

And lastly if you are "well endowed" well they do weigh a lot so you kind of have to adjust for them when you are looking on a scale, so all in all I'd aim for about 1800 calories a day and try to lose only like 4 pounds, and then see what you look like.

Answer 2

Forget the calories or the scale. What's important, like you said, is how your clothes fit. It's when you look in the mirror and like what you see, that matters. You're always going to gain some weight as you gain muscles, so it's just not accurate to judge yourself by your weight on the scale.
Just eat healthy, drink lots of water, and continue to exercise. You'll get to where you want to be without all the pressures of weight and calories.

Answer 3

find calorie/fitness calculator on the net, enter all your stats and it will tell you how many calories you need a day to maintain, take off 300-400cal off that number and thats how much you need to lose.
dont try to lose more than 1-2lbs a week - its not healthy to lose more.
eat 5-6 small meals a day (eat every 2-3 hours)
5-8 servings of fruit and veggies a day
8 glasses of water
have complex carbs for breakfast - they give you energy
have lean meat (protein) for dinner - repairs muscle
cardio exercise 4-6 times a week for 30-50min, light weight training
dont consume foods that are made of white flour (white bread, cakes, past etc.), sugar loaded foods (cookies, icecream, candy etc) and nothing fried - no junk food.

Answer 4

avoid unnecessary usage of drugs

Answer 5

walk between stores that are in close proximity dont drive

Answer 6

make one social outing this week an active one

Answer 7

ride a bike built for two for 12

Answer 8

go christmas caroling with the kids

Answer 9

hi just search exercise calorie calculator on the web sparkpeople is the best web site i have found for every thing about diet and exercise try it its free you will love it hope this helps

Answer 10

Eat snacks at your home bofore going to party