Following on from my 'Why can't I lose weight?' thread, I'd like to think I've done a reasonable amount of reading on the matter lately - so I'll try and splurge some of it out while it's fresh in my mind. My apologies in advance if the info is a little blunt, but I have a lot to say
an increase in activity levels through exercise may initially cause a weight increase through increased muscle mass - I'm guessing what you ideally want is to lose excess fat, look better, and feel more comfortable... (as per hayley's post). In reality, if the scales said you were 0.5st heavier than you should be, but you looked stunning, would you really mind that much? Keep on exercising and it'll pay dividends, both for physique and general health!
In terms of calorie intake - the recommended 2000kcals a day for women is based on that of a reasonably active female - someone who's day to day job involves a reasonable amount of moving around. If you're sat at a desk in an office all day, you're deemed to live a sedentary lifestyle, use this to calculate your recommended daily calorie intake (without exercise), which of course you can then add the calories burnt whilst exercising onto, to give you a personalised daily calorie allowance.
Just as an example... myself, a 12st7lb bloke, without exercise, doing a desk job, burns off around 2100 calories a day excluding exercise. An 8st 'sedentary' female would burn off ~1350kcals a day (excluding exercise & other major physical activity).
As was earlier mentioned, you need to create a calorie defecit of 3500kcals to lose 1lb of fat... now if I were to assume you were an 8st female with a desk job, you're eating 1400kcals a day, and burning off a similar amount in your normal day to day life. That's a calorie equilibrium - your weight will stay constant.
**Important Bit**
For someone weighing 8st, the body will use around 88.5kcals to run 1mile. So to lose 1lb of fat, an 8st person would need to run
39.5miles. What that equates to in terms of cardio at the gym and walking, i'm honestly not sure.
Weightloss is a slow process unfortunately - but keep at it, and don't throw in the towel - Be patient and you'll be so pleased with the results!