Calories

Question
I am a 5' tall, 30 year old woman, weighing around 114 pounds. I work at a drug store and generally average about 14000 steps during the day 5 days a week.  4 days a week I get on a stationary exercise bike for about 60 minutes and generally go about 13 miles. 1 day a week I go for about a 50 minute walk averaging about 3 miles.  I eat around 1900 calories per day.

Recently I've begun to gain weight which doesn't seem to make sense to me given how I'm working.  Can you tell me how many calories per day I should be getting, and what I'm doing wrong?

Answer
Hi Sarah,

While I can't tell you what you're doing 'wrong' I can make some assumptions:

1) Something has changed: perhaps you are eating more than you think you are?  This happens more around the holidays, when there are lots of goodies around that we tend to mindlessly pick up during the day.
You might consider keeping some sort of food diary to find out if you are picking up an extra 100 calories here and there.

2) You have changed some activity in your life? Moved to a one story house, stopped walking a dog or a baby, missed a few days on the exercise bike because of changes in schedule or feeling under the weather.

3) You have a thyroid condition, not uncommon in women, which slows your metabolism.

It has to be one of the above, basically--you are eating more, burning fewer calories, or have had something affect your metabolism. If you are certain you have not changed your diet or exercise routine at all, see your family physician and mention this to him and perhaps he will order a simple blood test to check your thyroid function..

Good luck!
Laurie

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