Hello!

I am new to this forum, but I figured I am needing some help. I`ve been trying to lose some weight for ages, but all my attempts failed. I`m only 19, and I have always strongly discouraged eating nothing at all or under 1000 calories even if I am quite desperate to get it off.

I particuarly want thinner legs and a thinner waistline, and I am not a sweets person at all (except sometimes during my period)
However, I do not EVER eat chocolate. I like to mochi (Japanese rice cake) sometimes or manjuu. Thats basically all I eat in sweets area.

Right now;

height: only about 156-158 cm or so.
Current weight: constantly 49 or 50KG.

I usually eat meals split in three.
Also, because I get home late from work and am having rather busy weekends, I have unfortunately no time to exercise. I live in Japan, so fortunately, I do walk enough per day (at least 1-2 hours of movement) downside; I have a desk job.

I KNOW I am not overweight, I just want to get a little more toned/thinner. If anyone has any suggestions, please help! Also some effective exercises that you can easily do at home and are effective for thigh/hip area? =)

The usual daily foods I consume now are ;
1 banana in the morning, sometimes a salmon filled riceball around 10.
lunch; varies, but I always include lettuce, tomato, or cucumber. Sides usually consists of rice, bread, gyoza, or eggs.
Also, when I eat bread, I dont eat it with salami or something, recently Ive been eating it with homemade tsaziki, which is bascially low-fat yoghurt mixed with cucumber, garlic and lemon powder.
and dinner varies strongly, but it always includes vegetable and mostly rice.

I also drink either lemon water, orange juice or green tea.

^^; the duty of us here is to tell you not to become underweight despite pressures which are high in asia to be stick thin. (have a lot of asian friends at uni..)
Your BMI is 20.2 and i know it's relative but to be safe, it shouldnt be lower than 18.5, that's 46 kg for you. so shouldnt loose more than 3-4 kg.
I cant advice you for further weight loss... wouldnt feel right.

If you do want to cut some food, remove all liquid calories: aka lemon water and orange juice. But make sure to get your vitamins through pills or other solid food.
And be careful with rice, especially japanese rice which doesnt absorb much water. So watch your portions. Instead switch to some protein which makes you feel fuller, longer.

If you work at a desk, how about doing some leg work under? or walk around for 5 min every now and again?

if tone up is all you want, you shouldn't diet and start eating normally and make sure to get enough protein to build muscle at your waist and legs. muscles is heavier so even if your weight wont change, your measurements will. You can find a lot of ab specific workouts on this forum, make sure to look around.


wish you luck !

Thank you for your kind and detailed reply =)
I was really shocked to see when browsing in magazines like Ageha and Egg, how thin they expect you to be. I actually think their end results look kind of sick, they are left with curves. I know it's heavely photoshopped (Because when losing that much weight, you lose your boobs, so either the girls in the advertisement have magic permanent boobs or have them surgically altered)
But the fact that the pressure is that high shocks me.

I wasn't planning on weighing 40, dont worry : ) I don't want to lose my curves and all! 46 kg sounds like a good goal for me!
Some friends have already recommended to take vitamin pills. The reasons why I kept drinking lemon water and orange juice is because I need something with a good taste once in a while, and lemon water only has 20cals and orange juice 40. But I think Ill have those only on the weekends from now on!

I know about the rice problem )= its hard to avoid, because we eat it here almost every dinner, and an onigiri is easily bought in case Im hungry. I always thought onigiri is better than something sugary, but maybe I can better turn to something like apples in that case.

*laughs* I was starting to force myself to drink more so I have to walk more to the toilet! I guess I should just move more though, even when my coworkers will be wondering what the heck I'm doing.

Yosh, I will be looking around! I think I've already found a few promising ones. My time to work out is really, really limited though, so this is why I wanted to do a healthy diet to go along. Not temporarily though, just really change the way and balance in what I eat. I used to live on bread with cheese every day, drink a fruit drink, and have dinner.
I started eating more real veggies and fruits instead and bring in some more variety, and honestly, I feel much better doing that : )

hehe is that gackt on your avatar? XD ...

I know taste is a big problem for me =( when I dont like food, I just dont eat it nomatter how hungry I am.

For drinking, how about some fruit infusions? like raspberry with sweetener in?
Aspartame has been shown to cut hunger too, but should be taken in moderation.

For fruit, choose the high fiber ones, I feel banana is the best for me.
Actually pick anything high fiber! I know rice is everywhere in Japan, maybe you could eat brown rice? I find any high fiber helps me feel full and not splurge on that cake (in your case, that rice ball )

and moslty, dont look at asian fashion magazines!!! they dont look half as good as their picture, you're right: uber photoshop, tons of make up, their boobs are fake, their eyes are pulled up, etc...
it's fun when looking at real make-overs to see how they really are.
But I guess it's hard not to be influenced!

=) if you can, let me know of any tips, progress you make.