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Hello everyone. This is my first post on the forums, and I found this site and thought I could get a lot of help from it, and from all of you that post on it. I am 20 years old and I am about 5'4''. I weigh about 135, and I ultimately want to get back down to 120 or less. I used to weigh that in high school, but have inevitably gained pounds while being in college. I have tried the Atkins diet (YUCK), the 6 meal diet, and various other random diets I have heard of. Nothing really works. I hate the Atkins and can never eat only meat and cheese, not to mention...all of that weight comes right back once you go off of it. I used to be really active athletically in high school, so I am definitely going to begin going to the gym. I have high endurance, so I can go almost every day, even though I have read that many of you advise not to go every day at first. I feel that the low calorie diet is the healthiest way to go, and will hopefully help me lose weight. How many should I eat per day in the first few weeks? Can anyone help me with steps to take, as to how many calories to eat in a month's span?? I want to lose weight quickly...although I know nothing really helps you do that. But if I did about 1000 calories a day, would that be harming my body at all? HOw many calories do normal diets intake? Those being people NOT on diets, just eating reguarlarly every day. How long do you all think it will take me to lose just 10 pounds? I am motivated and need to lose some weight...and will do anything at this point in order to do so. Thanks to everyone who sat through this boring long post and read it...and thank you so much in advance to anyone who helps me get on the right track. Thanks everyone, and take care!!!!!!!

Welcome :) Loss of 1-2 pounds per week is supposed to be the healthiest for you, although you may get faster results in the beginning, especially. One pound = 3500 calories so if you eat 1000 calories less than you burn every day that's 2 lb per week (but you might gain some muscle weight too if you're exercising). You can work out your base metabolic rate (ie how many calories you need to break even) here: http://www.hussman.org/fitness/bmrcalc.htm - you can probably eat more than 1000 calories a day and still lose weight, especially if you're exercising. I've been using the food and exercise journal at www.fitday.com to keep track of everything and I've found that really helpful. I hope some of that was helpful - good luck!

Welcome. 1000 should be ok, but dont go below it. If your calories get to low than your body starts to think that it is being starved so it will store the fat making you heavier. If you start to feel light headed while on a 1000 cal diet than you should increase your cals to 1500. You should still lose weight. Good Luck. [color=blue:371f97c9de][u:371f97c9de][b:371f97c9de]Kiara [/b:371f97c9de][/u:371f97c9de][/color:371f97c9de]