How many calories should I be eating to lose weight?

Question

I'm a 17-year-old female, 5'6, 141 pounds. I want to lose about 15 pounds. How many calories should I be eating to lose weight?

Answer 1

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.
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, oily.
ofcourse you can spoil yourself once in a while with a little treat:)

Answer 2

What you have lost already is probably a lot of muscle and water. Sure, you have probably lost a good amount of fat, but you will gain it all back unless you totally change what you are doing. Why ? Because for each pound of muscle you have lost, you come out 50 pounds slower metabolism. And right now, your metabolism is probably really slow. Eat sensible- anything less than 1000 calories a day is too little unless a doctor advises you to do so (and they won't unless you look like Jabba the Hutt). If you really want to lose weight permanently, eat more- you'll put the muscle back on that you lost and then you will really lose fat. Don't worry about "weight" loss, concentrate on fat loss. And eating 300 or even 800 calories a day is not the right way to do that...

Answer 3

Losing weight is a simple equation: if you burn more calories than you eat, the weight will come off. Start off by estimating how many calories you burn each day using the calorie calculator http://straighthealth.com/pages/tools/caloriecalclb.html This will give you an idea of how many calories to eat. Healthy weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week. To lose 1 pound per week you need to create a calorie deficit (burn more than you eat) of 500 calories per day. To lose 2 pounds a week, you have to double the deficit to 1000 calories per day. You can achieve this by eating less, exercising more or a combination of both.

Guide to Dieting - http://straighthealth.com/pages/guides/dieting.html

Answer 4

To lose weight you have to eat less then you did before. So I would track my daily normal calorie intake for a week or so, then when you know your normal number just drop it down by 100-200 and excersie

Answer 5

yeah yeah eat less and lose weight. it's not always that simple. you have to eat the right amount of calories for your age and present weight, plus exercise every day for best results. these sites can help you decide what's best for you. I have to exercise or I don't lose no matter what or how much I eat.

Answer 6

You should be eating healthy meals (cut the junk food, sugars, sodas, etc.) and don't worry as much about the number. Excercise daily, that will help burn the calories off.

Answer 7

play beach volleyball for 13 minutes

Answer 8

well if your that tall you probably don't neeeed to lost weight. but you should probably ask a dietitian. also if you cut out all the fat like butter and margarine and instead of having two of stuff just have one. do lots of walking and running you will lose weight

Answer 9

It depends on a lot of factors, including your activity level. By filling out the questionnaire on http://www.healthkeep.com/HealthKeeperFinding_Your_Ideal_Caloric_Intake.htm
you can define your personal calorie requirements. I wish you success!

Answer 10

you should eat 1200-1500 calories a day