newbie alert

[proudmomof3]

Hello everybody!
My name is Danielle and I am a 24 year old stay at home mom to three wonderful children. I recently started going to the gym and I LOVE it! never ever thought I would say that. I am 5'5" and was 207 lbs at my last doctor visit and it totally hit me hard that I need to loose weight NOW and stop putting it off.

I have started paying close attention to serving sizes and journaling everything I eat and my gym workouts.

I am now down to 200 lbs with a goal of 150 and then to work from there when I get there.

But this whole diet and excercise thing is new to me so any help and support I can get along the way would be so greatly appreciated.

I dont know how many calories I should be eating a day. (1200??? does that sound about right?) and how should they be broken down throughout the day? how many for breakfast, how many for lunch, how many for diner?

and how many days a week and how often should I excercise and what should I do? I have been doing 30 minutes on treadmill and 30 minutes on the bike 5 days a week.

 

[fayefaye5]

firstly hello and welcome to the forums

its a really good idea to journal everythign you eat so you can look back and make sure your getting the rights amounts of each type of food.

you can try using a website like this to give an estimated calorie intake. But it varies for each person depending mainly on body type and the amount of exercise you do.

Your exercise sounds great. By a personal trainer i was told i need a minimum of 40 minutes cardio 4 times a week to lose body fat, but again everyone will tell you different.

I normally have my biggest meal straight after the gym because my metabolism is working hardest, so i find its best to get a good amount of carbs and protein in that meal.