It get's confusing..burn more than taken in..yada yada..

[Pinks]

I try to eat over 1000 cals a day because to me anything less is bad. My personal max is 1200..just because I don't need anymore than that. But to lose weight you have to burn more than you take in..well how to I got about doing that? I don't want to eat too less & slow my metabolism but I'm not capable of burning off everything in my workouts. 3500cals=1 pound But for me to burn off 3500 it'd take a while, it just doesn't make sense.. I'd like to lose about 15 pounds & when you do the math it just seems damn near impossible.

[Eileen]

At 19 years old, 1000 calories is way too little. Even for a little old lady, it's low. For a healthy teenager who works out, it's madness.

No-one is suggesting you burn off 3500 calories at a single workout. Aim to do it over a week instead.

If your maintenance calories are 2500 (which is likely), then dropping calories to 2000 a day will cause a 3500 deficit over a week. If you also burn off an additional 500 calories a day in the gym, you'll lose 2lb a week.

[Want2BeStrong]

Can you post your height and weight?

I find it hard to believe that you are only eating 1000 calories a day but think you are overweight? 1000 cals a day is too little for any person, you should be eating more. If you can't eat more, then your metabolism is too slow.

Clean up your diet and work on building muscle. Without more info I can't really help much.

[Pinks]

I'm 5'4 & I wieght about 125. Fairly skinny..I'm just average. I workout regulary & do cardio throughout the week. I'm just trying to slim down & get toned.

[Mr.Hombre]

I'm 5'4 & I wieght about 125. Fairly skinny..I'm just average. I workout regulary & do cardio throughout the week. I'm just trying to slim down & get toned.

Slim down? I'm 5'5" at 145 and I can't imagine slimming down.

[MDalton]

I'm 5'4 & I wieght about 125. Fairly skinny..I'm just average. I workout regulary & do cardio throughout the week. I'm just trying to slim down & get toned.

Are you female?

[Pinks]

Yes. In writing it seems I'm perfectly fine for my age, height, wieght I know..but I'm just trying to lose some fat & get some definition throughout..

[MDalton]

I suggest calculating your BMR:

http://yianni.users.mcs2.netarray.co...WebApp/bmr.jsp

Start there. To get definition, you need to build muscle, and thats just not going to happen on 1000 calories a day. Your body is probably actually drawing on your muscle for energy. Once you have your BMR with your lifestyle added in, start with consuming 500 calories less than that, and really stick to it. Monitor your weight week to week, and see if you are losing ~1 to 2lbs per week. Thats the accepted amount you should be losing per week without losing muscle mass since you aren't that high in terms of body fat %. If you don't lose any weight in the week, and you have adhered to your plan each day, then try lowering by 100-200 calories and see how that works the next week. Adjust accordingly until you are losing ~1-2lbs per week.

If you don't do this, your body will hold on to whatever food it can in terms of fat. But if you eat several small meals per day and 500 less calories that your daily maintenance requirement, your body will have no reason to go into what I like to call "omg wtf im starving" mode and will just gradually lose the weight properly. If you combine this healthy diet with some nice excersize and weight lifting (dont be afraid to hit the weight room, even as a female, you will get the best toning results and trust me, you wont 'get too big' overnight) you'll get that toned definition you're looking for.

I use www.fitday.com to keep a general idea of what I'm eating each day. Its free to sign up and use.

I wouldn't worry about you eating too little to slow your metabolism, in fact, you might already be doing that by eating 1000/day. I'd read through the stickies, and also check out the female forum. I'm sure theres some good info there for you.

-dalt