calories

[newfound]

what is a realistic goal of calorie intake to loose 1-2 pounds a week.also what about calories burned how many is ideal ?

[SteveH]

The best approach is to monitor your calories out (using your fitbit) and your calories in (food and drink).

To lose weight you need to eat less than you burn. If you average around 500 calories less each day you should lose around 1 pound per week.

So you should be aiming to eat 500 - 1000 calories less than you burn each day.

[carl669]

in general, a 500 calorie deficit per day will equate to about 1lb loss per week.  however, this can vary quite a bit depending on a host of factors (like water retention).

are you doing anything other than watching calories?  diet modification? what you eat can be just as important as how much you eat.  are you adding in any additional exercise?

[gerrymcd]

There is no 'ideal number' of calories you should burn..... or at least not without a lot of knowledge about your fitness level, age, weight, height.....even your medical history.  The cheapest way to get good advice is to ask your Doctor how many lbs you need to lose (if any) and your Base Metabolic Rate (the number of calories you'd burn just staying alive - this depends on age, weight, etc).  

How to lose 1-2 lbs a week?

Add your Base Metabolic Rate (eg 2,000 calories a day) to number of calories burned through activity (~500 for an hour on a treadmill, or walking 10,000 steps) = Total Daily Calories burned

deduct 500 from the Total Daily Calories burned to lose 1lbs, deduct 1,000 for 2lbs.  

At which point you will realise its actually really not easy to lose 2lbs!