Expert: Cari Corbet-Owen - 11/2/2009

Question
I'm 14 y/o, 5'5 and 126 poundss.
I've never worked out before, but i believe that this would be a good time to start since lately I've been feeling more and more uncomfortable about my body, & its beginning to influence my everday life =|
I've even measured my body fat percentage online, and it came out to be unhealthily high =\

How much exercise do i need to get (and maintain later on) to being about 110 pounds? What do my calories burned/intake need to be in order to achieve this? (any other information about this would be greatly appreciated)

thanks =]

Answer
Hello Lynn - this is a really important stage of life for your relationship with you body.  Here's what you need to remember - this is the time of puberty when you body is going through lots of hormonal changes.  And it's at this time that many young women start to become self-conscious about their bodies and how it is changing.  Because it's at this time that we often have a 'fat spurt' as our body changes and in our thin-obsessed culture it's a time when our biology often clashes with our culture.  The other thing is that at your height and weight YOU ARE NOT OVERWEIGHT.  So I'm not sure what measure you used to measure your % body fat, but I'd hazard a guess that it's not a calculator geared for people under the age of 18 (like the one you'll find at http://www.ditch-diets-live-light.com/body-fat-calculation-and-health.html).  So if you look at height and weight tables http://www.healthchecksystems.com/heightweightchart.htm that for your height your weight, even if you had a small frame would be within normal limits.  So no need to panic.

Secondly, the real reason to do some exercise isn't to lose weight, it's because living an active lifestyle is what the human body is designed to do naturally - it's what makes you feel alive, vibrant and it's fabulous for your health.  So if you want something more prescriptive about how much and when and what exercise to do I'm afraid I'm probably not going to be very helpful because my experience has been that telling people to do x amount of exercise really isn't helpful because we're all so unique and different.  Here's what I'd focus on instead:
1)  make sure it's something you enjoy - if you hate it, you won't be able to maintain it (see http://www.ditch-diets-live-light.com/exercise-fun.html)
2)  make sure it's the exercise that is right for you and your unique lifestyle (http://www.ditch-diets-live-light.com/right-exercise.html)
3)  make sure you don't start off doing too much to soon, rather start out slower and build up in a way that is enjoyable for you.

Hope this helps.
Good luck Cari