How do I determine how many cals to eat a day?

Question

trying to lose some weight, working out, doing cardio... i dont wanna under-eat and then not have enough energy for working out.

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

I would say around 1400 cals a day is good for loosing weight, no less than 1200 anyway.
Just try and work out how many you have now and then reduce it by about 300-400 cals.
Make sure you eat healthy like fruits, veggies, salads, wholegrains etc. I have a banana about an hour before i work out and that always gives me energy. make sure you have 3 meals a day plus 2 snacks in between to keep you energy levels up.

Answer 3

this is an easy way to calculate the amount of calories to take a day.

For sedentary people: Weight x 14 = estimated cal/day

For moderately active people: Weight x 17 = estimated cal/day

For active people: Weight x 20 = estimated cal/day

Answer 4

Here is a caloric intake estimator that estimates your basal metabolic rate based on your lean mass (which is based on your weight and percentage body fat). The calories that it recommends are intended to provide about 1 to 2 lbs of fat loss per week with exercise.
http://www.spartafit.com/main/basal%20metabolic%20rate.php