Due to the fact that the first post comes up last, please go to the very last post of this section and work back up to the newest post, to make sense out of the entire Room 101.

First things first, you need to ask your doctor/dietitian what your maintenance intake should be, and what the macronutrient balance should be. If you need to figure out by yourself how many calories you need, the most important point is that daily intake must equal your daily expenditure. If you eat more than you need, your body will stock up the extra. If you eat less than you need, you will keep on losing. Keeping that in mind, you will have a general idea of how much you can eat, and how to...

To calculate how much you can eat in terms of volume of food, you have to convert the calories into grams. (After all, you can’t “weigh” the calories, they are a unit of energy.)
Carbohydrates: 1g = 4 kcal
Protein: 1g = 4 kcal
Fat: 1g = 9 kcal

So, as an example, let’s look at a 1200 kcalorie diet, with the following distribution:
Carbohydrates 50% = 600 kcal = 150g
Protein 25% = 300 kcal = 75g
Fat 25% = 300 kcal = 33g

An important point...

Of the foods that you eat, carbohydrates, proteins and fat are the major nutrients, called macronutrients, and the source of the calories you burn. The recommended dietary calorie distribution is:
Carbohydrates: 50-60<% (No less than 130g because of the brain/central nervous system requirements)
Protein: 20-25% (At least 0.36g/lb/day)
The remainder through fat, but preferably less than 30-35g

Incidentally, protein is for building your body, carbs are for running...

The examples below are for someone who works at a desk job and is mostly inactive. For each scenario, the total represents the daily caloric requirement to maintain the individual’s current body weight. (Note: This does not mean that you should maintain this body weight, only the amount of calories it takes to stay at that level.)

5’5”, 300lb (BMI 49.9): 300 x 11-13.6 = 3300-4080 kcal.
5’5”, 150lb (BMI 24.96): 150 x 11-13.6 = 1650-2040 kcal.
5’5”, 130lb (BMI 21.5): 130...