xercising and Eating but maintaining weight

laurabragg

My daughter lost 70 lbs and she is still going to the gym 4-5 days a week for 1-2 hours and eating the same as when she was losing the 70 lbs. Does your body know when it is done losing and just needs to maintain? It just seems like if she is doing the same as when she was losing that she would still be losing. I told her she needs to tone her muscle and make another goal and that she is putting her body at danger because she is 17 years old and she is at about 145 lbs 5'4" (or so) but I don't understand why her body stopped losing for the past 2-3 months while I'm still losing. Not that I want her to get down anymore because it may get dangerous but it just seems the body would burn more than it is taking in and lose naturally.

She is vey weak, she can only lift about 10 lbs on the weights and on the leg presses she does about 40 lbs. I told her to do it to burn and build the muscle.

Help with suggestions please.

vismal

Because her body is smaller she requires less calories to maintain then she did before. She lost nearly 1/3 of her entire body weight. If she is eating the same, what was previously not enough calories to maintain weight now is. To lose more weight she would have to reduce her total intake. You cannot tone muscles. Muscles can either be built, or burned as fuel. The toned look comes from 2 conditions being met. 1, enough muscle is built to have a decent muscular base, and 2, body fat is low enough to expose the muscle. To build muscle she would need to eat in a surplus and gain some weight. To ensure most of the weight gained is muscle and not fat, she should gain the weight very slowly (1lb a month) while doing strength based exercises. Even if she decides to keep losing weight she should still do strength based exercises to maintain what muscle mass she has.

At 5'4 145, her BMI is 24.9. 25 would be considered overweight. So she is just now in the normal weight for height category. If she wants to lose some more fat for aesthetic purposes that's fine but providing she doesn't gain any weight back, she has achieved a healthy weight for height. Since she is at the high side or normal, she is not likely at risk of developing problems associated with being underweight yet. I say not likely because BMI is far from perfect and doesn't take into consideration muscle mass.

terbusha

Was she doing primarily cardio when she was losing the 70 lbs? Also, how big was her calorie deficit? Check out this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk

Allan