Hi all,

I just signed up to this forum a couple of minutes ago. Since all of you sound like you really know your weight loss stuff, I have a problem that I hope I can get some advice on.

Well, I guess I am quite young, around 13 years old. I am around 1.68m or five foot five and 53kg or 116 pounds. I used to be in my school's badminton team from 9 to 12 years old and I still am this year. I train regularly, around three times a week about three hours each. My training involves doing a lot of leg and arm muscle exercises in the gym and stuff like squats, as well as quite a lot of running, sprinting, both on court on the track.

I always feel very tired after my trainings and it feels as though i have burned many calories. I do try to control my food intake but sometimes after my trainings I just feel so hungry that I have to eat a proper dinner.

So the problem is that I feel these past 4 years, instead of benefitting from this regular exercise and having weight loss and a slimmer body, my body has grown much larger and heavier. Especially my calves and thighs, they seem to have gained muscle and thus become larger. My waist is still pretty okay, but the problem is my arms, calves, thighs and butt.

It seems as though badminton has made my arms, calves and thighs grow muscles and thus become larger. So now everytime I read articles about how exercise can help get a slimmer figure, I get very sceptical, because in my case, it seems as though exercise has gotten rid of my slim figure and made me become fat, or look fat (muscles).

So I'm unsure if I should go and exercise or just cut down my diet. Afterall, I have many friends in school who don't or seldom exercise, well much less than me, and their so much skinner than me, especially where the calves and thighs are concerned
And they eat normally.

Also, s this large calves/thighs/butt problem genetics? As in is it passed down from parent to child?

So I'll be very grateful if I could get some advice on this issue. Is exercise good for us or not?