Hello, I'm new here. I've been reading the forums for a few days now, getting lots of good tips, and I'd love to have some opinions about how I'm doing.

I'm female, 27 years old (28 in two weeks). I'm 5'0" and I currently weigh 107. My scale says my body fat is around 20%-21%. I started dieting and exercising seriously about a month ago, and I have lost 5 pounds since then. I set my weight goal at 100 just to have a number, but my real goal is to get rid of the extra fat around my lower abdomen and butt and to tone my body a bit. I don't really care what I weigh as long as I look and feel good!

A few days ago I started tracking all my food intake on FitDay - FitDay.com - Diet and Fitness journal for elenadragon . I eat about 1200-1300 calories a day on average. I also started eating smaller meals with more healthy snacks in between, since I was finding myself hungry a lot during the day, and I have read that this keeps your metabolism up. I've been finding myself hungry a lot for a few months now, and I'm not sure what brought on this change, but having more smaller meals seems to be helping.

For exercise, I do DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) with my husband nearly every day for about 30 minutes. It is very aerobic. I also figure skate 1-2 times a week for an hour and ride the exercise bike sometimes for 30 minutes no more than 1-2 times a week (usually if I missed DDR). Yesterday I bought a Pilates DVD for some stretching/strengthening type exercises, which I plan to do a few times a week in addition to my current exercise. I have been doing this routine only for the past month. Before that I was riding the exercise bike for 30 minutes 2-3 times a week.

So, how am I doing? Since I don't have a lot to lose, I don't expect it to happen fast, but I want to make sure I'm on the right track. One thing I know I need is more protein in my diet. I don't eat a lot of meat, but do eat chicken/turkey and fish sometimes. I see people say that 1200 calories is too low for many people, but I think it is probably about right for me given my small size.

Another question I have is how accurate the calorie burning estimates on FitDay are? Do I really burn around 1200 calories just living and another 500 just going about my every day activities (I have a desk job)? If this were the case (burning 2000-2300 calories a day and eating 1200-1400), it seems like I should be losing weight faster.

Thanks for reading!

Can anyone help me out?

Sorry for the delay, we try to get to questions as quickly as possible so it is a little different than the other sections of the board. Some of us are professionals and have clients to tend to, we do this as a free service to help people.

You are pretty close I imagine to looking how you want to look, you are a very small girl. Honestly what I would focus on is the following...

-Get protein with every meal, a complete protein at that.
-While DDR is a fine source of activity to maintain your weight I think at your level you may need to bump it up. I have played that game though so if it is your only method of aerobic training you feel like doing, hit at it hard!
-You need to include some full body resistance work. Simply adding 2-3 days a week could make some big changes for you.
-You calories seem a bit low, I would raise them by 100-200 while adding activity. You are small so you can take in fewer calories, but still I wouldn't got that low and be active at all.

Hope that helps. Good Luck.

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Leigh Peele-Fat Loss Blog

Thanks for taking the time to help! I do appreciate it.

I went to the body fat calculator here: BBLex - Calculator: Bodyfat calculation by US Navy formula, and it came up with 26.5% body fat (13" neck, 28" waist, 36" hips), so I may be a little farther away than I thought.

-Get protein with every meal, a complete protein at that.

Does this include soy protein? I don't eat a lot of meat, and have a hard time digesting dairy. Using soy as a protein source does make things easier for me.

-While DDR is a fine source of activity to maintain your weight I think at your level you may need to bump it up. I have played that game though so if it is your only method of aerobic training you feel like doing, hit at it hard!

I do try to make it pretty vigorous, but I think maybe I will keep doing the exercise bike a couple times a week too (for variety as well).

-You need to include some full body resistance work. Simply adding 2-3 days a week could make some big changes for you.

Thanks, I will keep this in mind and look into what I can add here.

-You calories seem a bit low, I would raise them by 100-200 while adding activity. You are small so you can take in fewer calories, but still I wouldn't got that low and be active at all.

Can you use hunger level to gauge whether or not your body is getting enough nourishment? For example, if I am eating a healthy, balanced diet and enough food that I am not getting hungry, is it safe to say that I am probably getting enough calories in?

Thanks again!

Those scales are crap for measuring BF%.

I am glad to hear that the weight isn't an issue. Appearance is. At your weight, since you don't have a lot to lose, it can become quite "tricky" to alter body comp. Simple to lose weight. Difficult to recomp.

Honestly, with your stats, I think calorie/carb cycling would be ideal. I am not sure how "dirty" you want to get your hands. But from my experience, getting positive results in terms of physique at an already low weight takes some diet manipulation.

Do you know anything about cyclical diets?

Science does not support the idea that eating more frequently elevates metabolism.

However, don't stop. It does have benefits aside from a speedy metabolism.

Makes sense. For one, it helps regulate your blood glucose and insulin levels. This leads to less cravings.

All this cardio and no weights? I know Leigh recommended this to you too, but I can't stress how critical weight training is when you are already lean (relatively) and trying to get leaner. You say you want to "look" good. Then you MUST lift weights.

I don't really have a problem with 1200. I would much rather see you cycle, as I said above.

No, I don't think fitday.com is that accurate when it comes to their calorie expenditure estimations.

However, you do burn the majority of your cals each day through basal functions. Most people think it is activity that makes up the majority of their energy expenditures. It isn't.

Soy has it's place. However, I would much rather see you taking in whey. It is much better in terms of muscle retention while dieting. You don't like chicken and fish? You might want to consider buying a whey protein powder for shakes... however, I wouldn't survive on that alone. Do you like eggs?

I'd do more than keep that in mind.

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Is that when you alternate calorie cutting periods with muscle building periods?

I like chicken and fish, I just don't eat them very often, a couple of times a week usually. I tried some whey protein powder over the weekend (my husband uses it in shakes), and I had some intestinal difficulties. I have IBS, which makes any type of milk derived products potentially problematic. I am planning on trying it again to see if it was the whey or something else I ate.

I did pick up 1 1/2 dozen eggs yesterday with the intention of hard boiling them and eating only the whites for snacking. I do like those.


And I will start adding some weights into my exercise routine.

Thanks for your help!

Yes, there are many ways you could set it up. I suggest reading this article written by a good friend of mine.

High Performance Nutrition – Bodybuilding Nutrition Muscle Gain Fat Burning Post Workout

It is from a bodybuilding/supplement site, but it doesn't mean it's not good info. He is one of the top trainers in the industry IMO.

IDefinitely try the whey again. If it bothers you, you might want to try egg protein powder.

Truthfully, at least 1 gram of protein per pound of LBM is critical IMO, when dieting. If anything, protein needs rise when you are dieting.

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Thanks for the link, I will check it out.

LBM = Lean Body Mass? How do you know how much you have? Is it based on your body fat percentage?

Yes LBM = lean body mass. You don't have to be precise.

LBM = TBW - (TBW * BF%), where TBW = Total Body Weight

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