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Rather than making calories your #1 concern, really make sure you are getting your calories from the right foods. I have had a lot of success losing weight with this combination:

40% of my calories from protein
40% carbs
20% fat

40% from protein may seem like a lot but it really helps if you have a whey protein shake. Also things like low fat cottage cheese and eggs whites or egg beaters are high in protein while being low in fat and calories. To figure how many grams of protein you should be eating take your body weight and multiply is by .6 (or .9 for males). Ex: 175LB x 0.6= 105. Therefore , 40% of your calories in a day should be coming from 105 grams of protein.

The types of carbs you take in make a big difference too. Try to get most of your carbs from fruits and vegitables. They are carbs that are easier for the body to break down and turn into energy. I know that it is impossible to stay totally away from grain carbs, I love pasta and rice myself. I just make sure that the rice is not enriched, and is a long grain brown rice. Baked potatos are actually very good carbs also.

You want to make sure that you do not have a totally fat free diet. Fat helps your body to use vitamins. Just make sure that the fats you eat are not high in cholesterol or saturated fat. Skinless chicken breast and many types of seafood contain healthy fats.


As long as you are getting 40 minutes of good excerise at least three times a week, you should be getting more than 1000cal. I would say a healthy number would be closer to 1500. If you cut way down on calories and fat you can really screw up your metabolisim.

I hope this is helpful. Goodluck.