I hope this helps!

and doesn't cause any mayhem!
I constantly receive e-mails, mostly from young women, asking for my help and/or asking what it is I do to look the way I look.
I've been meaning to make a forum post but have been way busy with school, but now that i'm done, I finally was able to give a thorough and deserving message to a couple girls around my age. I thought I'd share with the rest of the community.

Let me thank you for the flattery. But, you shouldn’t compare yourself to anyone. You are gorgeous!
I’ve taken a look at your diary from the past few days and please don’t take anything I say into offense, but first of all, it seems to me that you are not eating nearly enough! 882, 908, 685 calories—big NO NO!! I will suggest you invest $10 on “The New Rules of Lifting for Women” to get inspired. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/102-new-rules-of-lifting-for-women-nrol4w Either way, most my references will be from my general knowledge, my own research and mostly from this book.

My Fitness Pal already creates a deficit for you if you set it to wanting to lose pounds so consistently being way under your daily goal calories is creating an even BIGGER, unhealthy deficit. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help/faq/268-what-are-net-calories 1200 calories is the (established) MINIMUM amount of calories our bodies need to survive if we didn’t move from our bed at all! Here are some of the things that ARE going on in your body right now and will happen if you continue to eat so little:
· Slow down metabolism—your body will hold on to whatever pound it can for as long as possible which is why weight loss is impossible or very slow when you put your body through starvation mode. And when the weight comes back, which it will because bodies can only handle being starved for so long, it will be in the form of fat as opposed to a balance of fat AND muscle.
· Loss of strength & muscle mass—which actually helps burn fat and maintains your metabolic rate
· Deteriorating bone mass
· Amenorrhea & more likely to have a miscarriage or unable to get pregnant
(your period will diminish, you may even skip a few cycles)—this happens because the body’s priorities shift toward fueling other “more important” organs to keep you alive and (kind of) functioning
· Diminish energy and sex drive
· Depression

Ok, now that I’ve pounded you with that—let me focus on WHICH foods you should be eating. You should concentrate on taking in more of the Macronutrients: protein, fats, and carbohydrates.
· Protein—leaves you feeling fuller longer between meals (so you won’t binge eat on any old thing), improves your mood, speeds up metabolism and helps maintain & repair muscle while losing fat. Protein is found in eggs, meats, chicken, beans, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese. There are thousands of protein shakes and nutrition bars.
· Fat—there are a few different types. The ones you should avoid are Trans fats and Saturated fats. The fats you want more of are the Unsaturated fats (Monounsaturated, Omega-6 Polyunsaturated and Omega-3 Polyunsaturated). These “good” fats (unsaturated fats) help your overall health, speed up metabolism, make your joints stronger and help lower rate of depression and are crucial for your babies’ development if & when pregnant. You can find these in olive, soybean and vegetable oils, avocados, nuts, peanuts (which are actually high in fat beans), fish, eggs. The “bad” fats (saturated) isn’t so terrible but still has no benefit so try to avoid them. You can read up more on Fats here: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/PreventionTreatmentofHighCholesterol/Know-Your-Fats_UCM_305628_Article.jsp#
· Carbohydrates—fruits, vegetables and whole grains are the ones to choose over wonder bread and cake. I don’t need to tell you the difference of these and what they do to your health because I’m certain you are knowledgeable of them already.

Moral of the story with food is to learn how to read Nutrition Facts on the labels of your foods.

Now, as far as exercise goes. What I recommend (as I've been doing). WEIGHT TRAIN, WEIGHT TRAIN, WEIGHT TRAIN! And NO SISSY WEIGHTS! The cardio is obviously important too but lifting will have you burning calories and fat around the clock (unlike cardio which your body becomes “efficient” at and eventually has you burning less calories). The human body is made to walk for miles, if you can’t walk a couple blocks without stopping to take a break; you are obviously in trouble & need to work on your endurance. But as far as wanting to lose fat and become “shapely,” ANaerobic is the way to go. Resistance training will also increase your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator which means that your body will be burning more calories no matter what you are doing compared to if you didn’t weight train. This happens in part because your body does a lot of work “repairing/rebuilding your muscles, connective tissues and bones” because you put them to good use. Also, “you will burn a higher percentage of fat calories used for energy post workout.” Don’t be afraid to push your muscles when training, because you will not bulk up unless you are specifically training for it. It’s hard enough for guys, who like to bulk up themselves and who have more testosterone to acquire such developed muscles, it won’t happen to you.

My exercise program is... I have no program I simply weight/strength/resistance train, do the elliptical, Zumba, kick box, Yoga (does wonders on so many levels!) and whatever else I can’t think of at the moment. Work out 3 to 5 times a week anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours combining any of these at times.

I try my best to practice what I preach, but alas I am human and do indulge every now and then which is fine with me because overall, I know I’m treating my body just right for me.

At the end of the day though, you will do whatever you feel is right for you, whether it is completely ignoring my advice or taking only part of it or completely implementing into your own life and that is alright with me as well. After all, it is your life and it should be lived the way you want to live it! There will be many different opinions that will not coincide with the way I believe our bodies should be treated and that’s ok too—we all have different thought processes and ideologies. But I do hope you do take all of this into consideration.

I wish you the best of luck in your journey to acquire and maintain a long, healthy beautiful life.

Happy Holidays!
Xoxo ♥ Karina