Calories do count,no matter what any of these new fad diets may claim,you will not gain weight if you do not eat more calories than your body needs to maintain your current weight. So if you need to eat 2200 calories to keep the weight you are currently at then trying to lose weight would mean eating about 500 less per day. There are many places where you can find a calorie counter chart to tell you how many calories you should be eating based on your age,weight and height. The reason that age plays a role in your caloric intake is that as you get older you really need a little more weight on your body. This is because you will look even older if you do not. As we age our fat under the skin depletes and this is why our skin loses elasticity and definition. For this reason most calorie counter chart sheets do have a special table for age as well.
Depending on how much weight you want to lose you may try and cut down a bit more during the first week. Say instead of cutting only 500 calories out of your diet,try cutting 1000 per day. This can give you a good jump start on your weight loss. The only problem is you do not want to put your body into what is called starvation mode. This is what your body does when you deprive it too much. It begins to store anything you eat as fat so that it can prepare for the next period of starvation. If you do not eat enough calories then this can happen and you can lose muscle mass. A good calorie counter chart will help you determine the minimum amount of calories you should be eating on a daily basis in order to lose weight.
On the other hand there are also those who need to gain weight. These people can us a calorie counter chart to figure out how many calories are in the foods they eat so that they can up the calories they eat. If a person is too thin and wants to gain weight then there really should be no limit to how many calories he/she eats each day however,the amount will have to be at least 1000 to 1500 more than what would be needed to maintain the weight they are at currently. Using the chart will help make it clear how many calories you are actually eating if you are trying to gain weight. You may want to try drinking some supplemental shakes as well.