How many calories?

Okaaay I just wanna confirm whether or not I'm eating the right amount to be losing 1 pound a week.

I'm 5 foot 8, 16 years old, female and 156. I KNOW I'm not really overweight BUT I still want to lose a bit.

I gained 2 pounds from last week but as my measurements have gone down/stayed the same I'm gonna assume its muscle mass, not worried about that, but just want to check.

I have a horse so I muck out every day and look after it, I ride between 30 minutes - 2 hours 6 days a week at the moment. I run with a friend and my dog for about 15/20 minutes and walk 10/15 minutes 3 times a week. The other 4 days of the week I walk my dog 30 minutes - hour. 4 times a week I also do a bit of weight training for about 15 minutes at a time.

I've been eating 2000 calories a day - is this about right?

Also, what kind of food do I want to be eating to give me energy? I'm just starting to feel a little tired, and am getting enough sleep.

Thank

I would consider you at least "moderately active", so going by this calculator, which is intended for children and teens (CC's calculators aren't accurate until you're 18 or 20, forgot which), you would probably maintain your weight on about 2700 calories per day.

Since you're active and young, you probably don't want to lose much (statistically, you're at an ideal weight, but only you know what's ideal for you), and therefore you should work on losing slowly.  It takes 3500cal to make up a pound, so to lose 1lbs/week, you'd need a deficit of 500cal/day.  That's probably a little too much, so you might want to aim for a deficit of 200-500cal/day, and just stay loose about it.  You don't wanna get obsessive 'bout it.

So, if you need a deficit of 200-500 calories a day, you'll want to try eating 2200-2500 calories a day.

However, if you're actually closer to "extremely active", you'd maintain on about 3300cal/day, and therefore would need to eat 2800-3100 calories a day to lose at your "happy rate".

Especially if you're feeling tired, I would go with the higher calorie range for now, and see what happens.  Also make sure you're getting enough carbohydrates, as they're where the body gets most of it's do-stuff energy, for horseback riding and the like.  And don't be afraid of sleep, 9-11 hours a night is healthy for teenagers, according to my doctor.

Thanks =)

Though if I slept 11 hours a night I'd have absolutely no time, I'd have to to bed at 6.30pm hahaha