thanks! Miss Jane, someone may have to stage some kind of intervention to tear me away from the computer and all the information you've provided
Based on what I'm reading this all sounds like more art than science. Or to the extent that it's science, you just have to experiment on yourself.
Tawny, thanks for the advice. That's pretty much where I ended up after doing a little reading. As it is, I'm pretty close to a 300 calorie deficit from what is recommended in the book, so I think I might try to start with the 300 calorie deficit and move up from there if needed. On training days this will end up being slightly more than I have been eating, but I weigh in daily (I'm not obsessive -- it actually helps me have perspective that any particular day's weigh-in is not that important and helps me focus on the trend) so I should be able to gauge (sp?) if I'm getting into trouble at the scale. Obviously, I'll also be monitoring how I feel to see if I need to up the calories.
Now on to preparations: new watch battery for timing rest periods (I stink at waiting around between sets), and practicing form for the exercises in stage 1.