2lbs a week to meet my goal

The website will help you figure out how many calories to eat to maintain that goal, I would work out 5 days too.

Good luck.

2lbs is probaby not as realistic as 1lb would be. From your ticker it looks like you have only about 40-50lbs to lose. You can try for 2lbs, but realize that the more you exercise the more muscle you will gain. So while you may get smaller you may not lose 2lbs per week. You can put it in the system and try it for a month. If you plateau or you're not seeing the results, you may want to adjust.

Good luck

2lb a week is realistic depending on what your current weight, height, and bf% is. If you are already somewhat lean and just looking to shed a few more pounds then 1lb a week or even 1lb every 14 days is more realistic. If you are obese, then 2lb a week is fine.

You need to find out what your TDEE is first which is your Total Daily Energy Expedenture. This is composed of your BMR + TEA + TEF which is your Basal Metabolic Rate (calories burned at complete rest and/or sleeping) + Thermal Effect of Activity (non exercise activity) + Thermal Effect of Feeding (calories/energy used for food digestion, etc).

There are formulas to come up with this but the most basic and simplest way is take your weight and multiply it by 14-16 (average).

Then you should eat at a calorie deficit of roughly 20-30% under that TDEE level while at the same time consuming your minimum amount of protein and fat macros that pertain to your goals.

You can hit your goal with dedication and consistency.

My goal is 2 pounds of fat loss per week.

I do cardio 3 to 4 times a week, and do strength training 2x a week. I have a Bodybugg, and aim for my calorie burn to be at 2,600 a day, which puts my nutrition at 1,600 per day. I've been loosing 2 to 3 pounds a week on average.

Keep in mind, if you're doing strength training that you will put on lean muscle, so don't be discouraged if you have a week or two where your scale doesn't move. I had two weeks where I didn't loose any weight, and the third week I lost less than half a pound. My trainer took my measurements to find that I was down 4 inches all over and 2% body fat in that three weeks. So as I was losing fat, my body was building muscle. As a result, there was no change on the scale. Just remember that your scale can't tell the difference between one pound of muscle and one pound of fat. So it's a great idea to have someone (the same person each month) take your measurements for you, so that you can use that in conjunction with your scale to monitor your progress.

I recommend to everyone... if you can afford it, get a Bodybugg. It has really accelerated my weight loss, due to the fact that I know EXACTLY how much I am burning each day and can adjust my calorie intake accordingly. If I burn more, I get to eat more. If I burn less (like on Sunday, which is my lazy day), I know I need to scale my calories back a bit. A 1,000 calorie deficit per day will translate into a 2 pound fat loss per week, on average.

Good luck, and God bless!

A helpful post on calorie deficits can be found here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/330934-guide-to-calorie-deficits

I did some guessing on your weight based on your ticker and took your height from your profile and came up with a BMI of 29.9. If you are there 1 pound per week is probably the most you should go for. 2/week is probably overly ambitious.