Activity level help?

fivefootfitness

(This just got posted in Maintaining by accident)

I'm a college student who is rather active, but I'm never sure which activity level to set my goals with. I live on a moderately sized campus and don't have a car with me. So, i walk to and from all of my classes (on average three a day, five days a week). I take a 1.5 hour Jazz dance class 2x a week, plus a movement for actors class, which includes about thirty minutes light cardio and moderate toning 2x a week. On top of that I work out at least 4-6 times a week, which includes about a half hour to 45 min of cardio plus strength and toning after.

I don't do very active things when I'm just bored (As in, the rest of my free time is pretty sedentary save for walking places). I'm trying to lose fat again (i did put on a few freshman pounds, but I actually think some of it might be muscle rebuilding and a little fat since i stopped running). I'm wondering if I might truly be eating too few calories, because despite yoga and running almost everyday this summer and performing for 2 hours of musical theatre every weekday + walking everywhere, I wasn't able to lose any weight then either. I usually aim for about 1000 calories since i'm already so petite (5'0", under 120 usually) (but always tend over, but not by ridiculous amounts. I am a horrible snacker, but not enough for my weight to absolutely never budge like this). Do I need to eat more? I ate very healthily at home but of course it's trickier on a college meal plan.

Ready2Rock206

You sound pretty active to me - definitely not sedentary. Pick a higher activity level - try it for a while and if you need to adjust it later because you're not losing or losing to fast then adjust accordingly.

PinkCoconut

You definitely seem quite active but 1000 calories per day is not enough regardless of your height! Your body needs MINIMUM of 1200 calories per day just to survive, if you go that number or below your body will hang on to that fat for dear life as it thinks you have no food!

On top of that, because you are so active, you are most likely burning MORE than 1000 calories per day which means your body will be in a negative calorie range which is no bueño!!! At this point your metabolism has probably crashed big time also causing your body to hang on to the fat. You'll want to probably go up to at least 2000 calories to bring up your metabolism and help your body to burn off that fat!