Nutrition Values......

Can someone please help me, up until now I have only accounted for my protein and sugars, never watched my carbs, fat, or calories.  I don't intend to micro manage these, however, I have 5 more pounds to lose and can't seem to get it off.  I was wondering if anyone has a chart for how many of the following you are to have a day: Calories Carbs Fat I understand that we are all different but I would like to get some sort of guidance on this.  Maybe I am getting too few calories, or maybe too many carbs.  Just would like to know.

This is really a very personal thing.  The "right" diet composition varies based on your natural metabolism and your level of exercise.  If you're getting too few calories, your body will be very resistant to losing any weight.  If you were getting too many calories, you'd see your weight start to creep up on the scale.   I work out 6-7 times per week, usually lifting weights 2x and 60 minutes of cardio 4-5x.  So I burn a lot of calories through exercise.  At my current weight and exercise level, I need around 2000 calories per day, w/ 50% of my calories coming from good carbs, 25% from protein, and 25% from fat.  When I maintain that composition, I lose 1-2 pounds per week.  If I do not exercise and I eat this way, I will gain 1-2 pounds per week.  So I'm burning off a lot of the carbs I consume through exercise.   I figured out what works for me based on an analysis of my diet and exercise over time.  I keep track of my daily food intake and exercise through software from calorieking.com.  I think fitday.com has similar software and you can use it online for free.  By using this type of software to track your diet and exercise, you should be able to get a baseline (your current diet), then make some changes and see what happens.  Sort of like using yourself as a guinea pig (in a healthy way, of course).   If this all sounds complicated, well, it can be.  But I'm hoping that by tracking this information so I can analyze it, that I'll have the information I need to be able to maintain when I'm finished losing.   Final suggestion - have your resting metabolism tested.  That will give you your minimum calories needs for a day, so you'd know how many calories your body needs on a daily basis.  You can have this done for around $200 at a New Leaf Fitness franchise (find a franchise near you at http://www.newleaffitness.com/).   Good luck for continued success on your journey -  Kellie

Have you tried sparkpeople.com ?   It will give you an idea of calories, fat, carbs, and proteins you should take in based on weight, height, and your daily activity and whether or not you are trying to lose weight or maintain.  I use it but have to adjust the numbers some because it has my carb intake at like 200 which is too high for me personally.  But it will give you some idea though. Kerri