Taking the next step: Counting Calories

From a few posts before this one you can see that I am big into working out now, specifically weight lifting. I still do 3 days a week of weight training when possible and play hockey once a week (and soon will be starting up Flag football with hockey too). The weight training has been steadily replacing my fat with muscle and my hockey is a great cardiovascular workout that incorporates short intense intervals (1-2min) and a few mins of rest. However since my drop down to 170lbs I have not gotten any lower and it is definitely due to my daily diet.

With school, work, workouts and more school I found myself very busy and extremely lazy to make that effort to find/make something healthy to eat. My quickest and easiest solution was always to go pick up some fast food. That would be McDonald's, Wendy's, Jimmy's (Donairs), Chicken on the Way (Fried Chicken) or a poutine. The only good thing about this was that it kept me at around 2800 calories per day and kept me at a consistent weight of 170 for the last 7 to 8 months.

Now with school wrapping up and all I have is finals left I feel like I can lean up some more and get this body looking SEXY! So I went online and used a few Calorie counters to help me figure out what I need to start my calorie counting. I inputed my height, age and weight and my goal weight of 165lbs. The numbers calculated for me were:

Without Exercise
-2523.8 calories per day to maintain my current weight without exercise
-2487.6 calories per day to reach my goal slowly without exercise
-2023.8 calories per day without exercise to lose one pound per week
-3023.8 calories per day to gain one pound per week

With Exercise
-2760 calories per day with 30 min exercise per day
-3060.7 calories per day with 60 min exercise per day

Macronutrients
50% of my calories should come from carbohydrates
30% of my calories should come from fats
20% of my calories should come from protein

1g of protein = 4 calories
1g of fat = 9 calories
1g of carbohydrates = 4 calories

so to maintain my weight of 170lbs I must eat:
-315.5 g of carbohydrates
-83.3g of fat
-126.2g of protein per day
total calories consumed=2523.8

to get to 165lbs I must eat:
-311g of carbohydrates
-82.1g of fat
-124.4g of protein
total calories consumed=2487.6

With those numbers I am going to try and hit around 1800 to 2000 calories per day and still do 3 days of weight training with 2 days of sports (flag football and hockey). I might start supplementing that with some treadmill action once to two times a week (depending on how busy I am). From all this let's see firstly if I can stick to counting calories (something I have NEVER done) and secondly see my results within a month from now!

The hardest things to over come with this new change in eating is definitely not cheating and eating fast food. Basically I have to cut it out, and if I do eat it, I should only eat it once a week maximum. The other hardest thing will to be cut down on yummy intake of rice during supper and to make sure that I eat a healthy filling low calorie breakfast and lunch as well.

Hopefully this turns out well! Wish me luck!