Hey everyone! My name is Michelle, I am 17 years old , 5'2, and weigh 159 pounds. I really want to loose about 35 to 40 pounds and I'm really confused about how many calories to eat. A friend of mine mentioned to eat only 1200 calories a day because I'm a relatively short person but I've read on here alot that 1200 is considered a "starvation" diet...But I don't know I;m really confused. I joined my schools cross country team this fall and ran more than I ever have in my life!! I'm more in shape than I use to be, but I have not lost 1 pound so far! Not one!! I think it's because I've also been eating more calories than I have in awhile, because I thought since I've been running more than I need to eat more...But now I'm not so sure since I havn't lost any weight...The last day of the season is Saturday...But I'm still going to continue running on my own and am going to start going to the gym with my dad. My plan is to run 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) and Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sarurdays I go to the gym with my dad. For 3 days a week I'm going to be concentrating on just cardio (my running days) and for the other 3 days I'm going to focus mostly on weight training (my gym days) where I go use the elliptical for about 25 or 20 minutes just to get warmed up then go do my weight training. Is this a reasonable plan that will help me reach my goals?? And how many calories should I be eating a day with that much physical activity?? Thanks in advance for your help!

159x 13 = 2000 or so.

I'd eat about 1600 a day. Maybe a couple of hundred more during days with heavier exercise.

First of all, 20-25 minutes of cardio is simply not necessary as a warm-up for your weightlifting. Concentrate on your effort lifting weights and if you feel up for it do your cardio afterwards.

As for the caloric intake, everyone is different, but most definitely the reason why you didn't lose weight during the x-country season was an increase in your caloric intake.

1600 a day sounds good as a place to start. Try it for 2 weeks and tell us how it worked out.

Michael

Where are people reading that 1200 calories is a starvation diet on here? I see a lot of new members come into this forum saying they read this here and I'm just interested in knowing where. If it's one of my stickies, I'd like to change it.

It seems to be the new vogue number. I think there are a lot of weight loss tv shows that like to use that number (or 800) as "too few calories" and then they throw them 6 meals a day and give them an extreme makeover.

lol!

Yea, I see it in media all the time. I can't remember if the OP said she saw it on this forum, and I'm too lazy to hit the back button..... but I know many come here saying they see that number thrown around on the forum and I just don't see it.

i mentioned it in another thread - starvation diet seems to be the current health buzz word that we throw around here a lot and it's rarely used correctly. There's a new thead where there's a pretty good explanation of what starvation mode really is, in the nutrition forum.

We pretty much know that 1200 for the majority of people is a low number of calories... A starvation diet is considered too low calories so I think put two and two together -

I don't believe it's anything that youhave said directly.

Gotcha, thanks Mal.

good god what I wrote actually made sense? I don't understand what I wrote...

ah you're humoring me.. I get it..