calories per day

Question
QUESTION: Hi Laura,
I'm 19, 5'9, and about 165 pounds. I've always been active, but have become less active since I started college. I do lift weights about 3 times a week, I do squats everyday, and I do cardio for 20 min everyday. I eat between 1,200 - 1,600 calories a day. I grew up eating well portioned health conscious food and have always eaten about 1,500 calories. I have tried hundreds of diets, because I'm a "bigger" girl (and I don't want to gain anymore muscle mass). The fat on my body stays on my thighs, hips, and butt, and I would like to get down about 15 - 20 pounds which is still a healthy weight for my height. However, no matter what I do I can't seem to lose weight. I feel like I should starve myself, but I know it's not healthy and the results will no last. I'm really discouraged as to what I should do. I can't really consume less calories and still be healthy, and it seems like everyone eats more than me. Is this normal? Do I just have ridiculously low metabolism? What should I do? =[

ANSWER: Dear Aryanna, You can't change your genetic makeup, so you will always be heavier on the bottom. Muscle is heavy, so lifting weights will maintain the muscle mass, doing squats will maintain muscular thighs and butt. You can try just cardio for a month with no heavy weight lifting, just light weight lifting. If you are consistently eating only 1200 calories per day and not losing weight, then your body has adapted to those calories and sensing starvation, has lowered it's metabolism. Try increasing your calories to at least 2000 per day at least 2-3 times per week. Eat high protein foods like chicken, fish, eggs, egg whites, low fat dairy, and high protein shakes along with a healthy diet of vegetables, fruit, healthy fats, whole grain bread, and a lot of water. Stay away from fast foods, bagels, pasta, mac and cheese, and other starchy foods that are easily stored as fat. Eat 5 meals per day averaging 300-400 calories each. Smaller more frequent meals will help keep the body burning calories for energy and protein foods are hard to store as fat. Good luck, hope that helps, Laura Kraemer,Slimkids.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Laura, I will try that out. The only thing I'm worried about is gaining weight by eating more calories. How much cardio do you think I should do a week to help balance my metabolism and get it to where I can eat more calories (from healthy foods) without gaining?

Answer
Dear Aryanna, You have to stimulate your metabolism by eating more and exercising more. Give your body some time to change. Do at least 30 minutes per day of any aerobic exercise, this is in addition to your weight lifting three times per week. On weight days, do weight lifting first, then aerobics after. On average an exercise bike would burn 300 calories per 30 minutes, a fast walk would burn about 250 calories per 30 minutes, elliptical-350 calories and circuit training-350 calories per 30 minutes. These are all good choices, or do 15 minutes of walking and 15 minutes using machines. Hope that helps, Laura Kraemer,Slimkids.com

1. Prev:Low fat vs. low carb
2. Next:Nutritian