About how many calories should I be taking in to lose weight successfully?  I'm 16, 170 lbs, 5'9 and fairly active.  I want to know the limit of how many calories I should be taking in to still manage to lose bodyfat and keep most of the muscle I have.

Thanks for that, it's really helpful

This one supposedly has pretty decent measurements: http://zone.cust.he.net/prothd2.html


While a calculator may prove useful as a starting point, they are somewhat worthless in my opinion.

Monitor your caloric intake for 1-2 weeks.  See if you are gaining, maintaining or losing in that time period.  If gaining/maintaining and want to lose then you eat less.

www.fitday.com makes this exceptionally easy.  I did this for 13 months on my own with an excel spreadsheet that I manually programmed... www.fitday.com is much better and easier. 

Be as strict as you can in your measurements of what you eat for optimal results...i used to weigh everything I ate...might be worth it to do so for a couple of weeks at least.

1500 is kind of low for someone of your age/size.

Why are you trying to lose, btw?

Eating a fair amount, just of better foods, will probably work wonders to lean you out since you are still growing.

what is your bf% right now?

Strange...

This one is also supposed to be really good:

http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

Use the one with tape measure methods.

Can you see your abs when you lift up your arms?

you are likely over 15% if you cant see your abs when you lift up your arms....22.54% may or may not be accurate -- but yea, you can stand to lose some fat...

Looking over your fitday from the first entry -- your protein sources are horrible..albeit better than nothing.  Many foods you are consuming are highly processed and filled with nitrates and preservatives (frankfurter, bacon, etc.)

However, your ratio is really good as well as your caloric intake.  Don't let calories slip TOO low because excess calories + excess exercise will result in fat retention -- im not quite sure by what mechanism, but i know it's proven...excuse my lack of knowledge here.

Keep your metcons under 15 minutes -- closer to 5-10 at very high intensity.  Keep up the walking instead of the bus, if at all possible...you may want to consider doing short duration sprints during your walk home to keep things interesting and high intensity.

It seems like, all in all, you are on the right track.  Start counting pounds and inches.  Measure/weigh in once every other week...if you are not losing consistently we can reevaluate things.