New to calorie counting help plzzzz

[Bikini1234]

Hey all I've been snooping through this website for a few days now and have seen all the wonderful success stories and I'm looking for a success story for myself I've put on quite a bit of weight since last year I was on sw and lost 6 stone but finding sw doesn't seem to suit anymore so thinking about calorie counting but have no idea were to start and was hoping for a bit of help regarding how many calories I should have daily I'm 5ft 4 inches 180 pounds and I'm 21 female I run 4 days a week clocking up 20 miles a week but am working towards 30 plus miles a week and lift weights 1-3 days a week I was also wondering how long it takes losing weight when calorie counting as I have heard it is very slow ?? Was also wondering if anyone else has switched from sw to calorie counting? Any help would be amazing thanku xxxx

 

[Legomom]

I think your first stop is somewhere like Myfitnesspal. Most of us use it, it's a very good free cal counting site that has mobile apps for most smartphones. It takes all the effort out of counting!! And most importantly will calculate your calorie intake for you!! Just pop your details in and let it do it's thing I'm legomom81 there and there is a thread somewhere where you can get everyones username if you want to add friends

CC isn't slow at all. It's the same as any diet...... some people lose faster/slower than others even when they eat the same.

 

[tiamaria0405]

Calorie counting to me isn't a diet....as you can eat what you want such as a pizza you can still have just maybe less or a low calorie one

its more of a lifestyle change for me i love it i have been going 3 weeks and still going strong

 

[Bikini1234]

Thanks so much for the info and help well done hope I'm still goin strong after 3 weeks how many calories a day would use have? I'm worried about not eating enough to accomodate all the running I'm doing because I have read somewhere if this happens you can go into starvation mode xxx

 

[tiamaria0405]

My fitness pal will sort out that for you just enter all the data and how much you weigh n how much excercise you do it will sort it out

 

[Legomom]

At your level of running etc then you'll probably need to eat more than the 1200 cals MFP will allow you. At your height and weight (I'm guesstimating here so don't take this as gospel) and if you want to lose 2lb a week then 1200 will be your basic limit. If your burning a lot of calories from your workouts your going to need to eat more.

How you work that in is up to you. Some people eat all the exercise calories back, so if you have 1200 as a basic and do a 500 cal run, you'd eat 1700 that day. Others eat half back so would have the 1200 basic plus half the 500 exercise cals = 1450. I'd say try eating half for now as I don't know how the changeover from SW to CC will affect your weight to begin with? Someone else might have better advice for you there!

But if your hungry then EAT. With all that running etc it's not worth messing up your body's metabolism just to shift an extra pound a week! Common sense will tell you if your not eating enough