Expert: Joanne - 9/11/2007

Question
so ive been like starving myself some what. i usually eat breakfast, but i dont eat lunch or dinner or even a snack. i just started working out and i wanna know if im gunna loose weight or not, because i wanna shape up my stomach but everytime i try 2 regular diet it doesnt work, so i need to loose weight bad. and im going 2 keep starving myself until i loose the weight i need 2 loose. i weight 130 and im almost 16. i'm extremely fat. i have an oversize butt and kinda big boobs, i dont wnana loose it but i will if it means getting my stomach in shape. im so self concious. so my question is should i stop eating breakfast 2? and if i drink water alot will i gain alot of water weight?

Answer
Starving yourself is definitely not the way to go to lose weight!

When you starve yourself, your metabolism slows in order to allow your body to survive on as few calories as possible.  Your body breaks down muscle tissue in order to fuel the body as well as fat, meaning that your muscles become smaller and weaker, including your heart.  When you begin to eat again, you will put all the weight back on - and initially, you risk even overshooting your original weight, although this usually settles itself in time.

In order to shape your stomach up, you should be looking at eating well and doing everything else with exercise.  You should be looking at doing a lot of toning exercise aimed at the abdominal area with only a little cardio exercise.

Please think seriously about what you are doing!  Eating disorders can be fatal, it is never a good idea to use these as weight loss methods!

All the best
Holly