Is my diet and exercise regimen too much?

[nollie33]

Currently I am a totally normal healthy body weight, but I'd like to drop 10 pounds. I eat 1000-1200 calories a day and I do a fairly intense work out for a little over an hour at least 5 days a week. I burn around 500-600 calories per workout. I don't seem to be dropping weight, but could that be because I'm gaining muscle? I notice my body is smaller but not necessarily weighing less. Should I up my calories?

I'm 5'8 and 140lbs and I want to be 130lbs and toned.

[sarahh_12]

First off, let's start with your diet, you need 10-15% of your caloric intake to be protein; 20-30% fats, but make sure they are unsaturated fats, unsaturated fats include polyunsaturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fats; and 40-60% from carbs. If you're shooting to lose weight your calorie intake each day has to be less than your loss. Fruits and vegetables are great for snacks. You need about six "meals" each day. Breakfast is the MOST important meal of the day, it sets up the way your body's going to function for the day and makes a big difference on metabolism, it should be something like oatmeal with berries; a snack about 2-3 hours later, something like fruit and yogurt or cheese or even a V8 (the regular one not the sweet one, it contains more unnecessary sugars); lunch, nothing too big, but make sure it's a meal with protein, your body needs this energy for your workout; another snack, nuts and cheese or something just like before; dinner, if it's within thirty minutes of the end of your workout you will greatly benefit from protein seeing as your body will still be working hard and it'll take up the protein; and another snack, just like the ones before, you have to make sure your snacks aren't large. A typical snack for me would be a V8 and a string cheese (the string cheese typically has 9 grams of protein in each), or some nuts or something like that.

For your weight and activity level you should be eating about 2000-2200 calories a day, possibly even more. I can just about guarantee that what's happening is you're gaining muscle and that's why oyu haven't seen weight loss. Weight shouldn't be an objective, weight really means nothing without other things like BMI and such, therefore, the reason you've seen yourself still get smaller is because you're toning. What's happening is a good thing. Your muscles are gaining muscle memory and in the future if you gain a few pounds your body wuill still be capable of doing quite a few of the same things it can with you in really great shape.

Hope this helps! :)

[peace-love-couture]

Unless she's an athlete 2000 calories will only backfire

[sarahh_12]

If she's an athlete she'd need around 3000 calories.

[nollie33]

Thanks so much! I've been struggling to eat 1200 just because I'm so busy and usually not hungry...so I guess I'll have to start eating more calorie dense foods. = )

[sarahh_12]

Make sure you try and stay away from simple sugars too, those things are deadly!

[TheWhiteFreshPrince]

I would up your cals a little, it probably is because you're gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time. What do you do for your workouts?

[nollie33]

I do around 30 min on the elliptical and around 35-40 minutes spinning. I want to start doing some strength training type stuff also.

[TheWhiteFreshPrince]

I see. Well, seems like you are doing alright, you're probably just gaining muscle as you burn fat. This is assuming you have a healthy diet.

[nollie33]

Yea well I'm already vegan so my diet is pretty much entirely fruits and veggies. = ) Thanks so much for the advice!

[TheWhiteFreshPrince]

Being vegan doesn't mean you have a well balanced diet, but I trust you know what you're doing :D

[nollie33]

Oh I totally agree.. I just mentioned it to say I wasn't eating 1200 calories of junk food or anything like that.