determined to succeed

destiny150

Hi everyone. I just started and am hoping to lose about 20 lbs but right now its's hard to get it off. I exercise daily but can't get it off with exercise alone. I try and watch what I eat but the problem is I can't calculate calories in most homemade meals. I have been trying to eat in small bowls to see if that helps. To be honest I don't know how many calories I need to consume daily to lose. The site told me 1200 calories/per day. I know I burn 500 daily exercising (I use a heartrate monitor). I also drink a lot of water about 1 1/2 gallons/per day. Any suggestions you guys can give me to help me succeed is accepted.

determined3138

Check this website out: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

you put in the ingredients, tell it how many servings and it will calculate nutrition for you.

dashpainters

I think to lose weight its 80% what you eat and 20% exercise. I had the same problem, I did heaps of exercise and wondered why I wasn't losing weight. Now I focus on what I eat and see the exercise as a bonus to kickstart further loss.
Also because I find it a pain having to log all the ingredients of a meal, it actually helps me lose weight because I keep the ingredients simple. The less I add to it, the less I have to log on the computer. Also once I find foods I like I just keep eating them so I can copy and paste them onto the next day. ie I love grilled chicken breast with beans and tomato, so I have that for dinner most nights. Hope that helps!

aranchmom

You can enter your own recipes on here. then it divides the total calories by the number of servings you enter. I enter soem of teh recipes I use alot - makes it alot more accurate and precise.

destiny150

Thanks gang. I really appreciate the help. This will certainly help. Thank determined3138 I will try that website. I'll keep you posted on my progress.