Calorie help!!!!!!

How many calories are eating now?

I am so confused on how many calories to intake to lose weight. I would like to lose 2-3 pounds a week. I workout 6 days a week. For at least an hour each time. I eat 5 small meals a day. Currently weigh 217. Goal weight is 165. I do lift 4 days a week which really slows the scale down to. Suggestions?

First, your goal of 2-3 pounds a week is ambitious. A bit too ambitious for healthy, sustainable weight loss. You might want to start with readjusting those. The only people who hit that average are quite heavy, not a bit overweight. Take me for example. I started at 343 pounds. I lost 3 pounds a week in the beginning, but even at 263 I'd have to eat pretty low to hit that. You should be aiming for about 1 pound a week.

And there are two ways you can do it. Figure out your TDEE, for which we need your age, height and weight. This method accounts for your exercise, so you eat the same amount every day and do not eat back exercise calories. Option 2 is using MFP's system. In which case, fill out your profile and when you exercise, log that too so you can eat back your exercise calories. Do you have a preference? Some people like the consistency of TDEE. I like the motivation of more food if I exercise in MFP's method.

No one can give you hard numbers though until we know your height and age.

I would say you're going to have a tough time losing 2+ pounds per week and doing strength/weight training. I know that sounds a bit depressing, but you will be adding muscle, so don't just judge your results on the scale alone. Follow Willdta's advice -- 500 calorie deficit a day -- which equates to 1 pound per week. You may find that you lose more than a pound some weeks and you may have some "stubborn" weeks, but overall you will be glad you added strength training. You could also try cycling by lifting for 3 weeks and taking 1-3 weeks off.

In terms of how often to lift, it depends on your goals, but hitting each muscle group (chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, legs, abs) once per week is a good start. Abs you could do 3x per week.

I do not want lose skin or to be flabby!

So change your goal to lose 1# per week. Honestly, I mean it. Learn from the mistakes the rest of us made.

Also, 3500 calories is about equal to a pound of fat. This means you need to have a deficit of 3500 calories to lose one pound.

And a reminder, it is not healthy to lose more than 2lbs per week. You are more likely going to put your body into starvation mode which will slow your metabolism. Slow and steady wins the race.

I do fasted cardio at 5am 4-5 days a week for a half an hour on the elliptical.

This honestly concerns me. Eating a healthy breakfast when you wake up is very important for how you feel the rest of the day and it also helps kick start your metabolism. You are not gaining anything by trying to do cardio on an empty stomach. You should at least have a quick energizing snack is you don't have time for breakfast right then. A piece of toast with some peanut butter would even be fine.

Eating or not eating breakfast will have absolutely no significant impact on your metabolism. Some people find it gives them increased mood and focus and decreased hunger throughout the day. Others have the opposite reaction. It is perfectly okay to skip breakfast.