So I fell off track... :(

Chloe9218160 wrote: »

Well, I haven't been eating well or exercising very much this week, and I feel terrible. I usually run 6-14 miles about 4 times a week, and then do competitive swimming on all the other days. I also usually keep well within my allotted calories, which is pretty easy because I burn a lot. However, this past week, starting with Tuesday, has slowly gone downhill for me and I feel very ashamed of myself. First off I had a swim meet this weekend so I ate whatever I wanted starting Friday night saying that I needed the energy (not that much energy), plus I ate poorly during the week. Then, I ran a half marathon on Monday (I wanted to push myself on one of my normal runs) and about killed my knees, so I decided to take the week off for running. I also was sick on Thursday, so I didn't swim, plus I didn't swim on Wednesday, which means I swam in Tuesday and Friday. I had the meet on Saturday and Sunday, but I didn't do much exercise during it. I am basically just stressing and afraid to weigh myself because my habits fell apart so badly, and I am also afraid that I am losing muscle instead of fat. My goal is to have a very low body fat percentage and to have a very high muscle mass, and just be strong and athletic in general. I didn't swim as well as I would have liked in the meet, so that brought on the muscle worries, plus I don't feel as strong lately. I am also afraid that my metabolism is going to slow down, because my calories are fairly low. Could someone please look at my diary and tell me what I should be doing? I think I need a game plan to get to my goals. If it helps, my stats are: female, 18, 5'4", 131ish(probably not after this week) pounds, and I started out at 145-150ish pounds. Sorry for bothering you guys, cause I know this post is long and all, but I'm just so stressed and I feel so gross after eating like a pig for a week, especially after eating out tonight, plus a little discouraged from my meet results. Thanks to anyone who responds.

Chloe9218160 wrote: »

First, a long post is much more comfortable for others to read if you break it up into paragraphs. If you'd like assistance, please try to make it as easy as possible for others to assist you.

Second, I'm not sure what you mean by "very low body fat" as, for women, that could potentially be dangerous. The female body is designed to have some bodyfat. Men can safely get down to 5% for brief periods (and even that requires a great deal of work to do safely) but women shouldn't go down below 10-12%, and even that could be enough to do things like stop your period and cause a growth of extra body hair, depending on how you go about it.

Here's an article which discusses bodyfat percentages and has photos for comparison. You might find that a very low bodyfat percentage isn't even what you need to acquire the look you want.

builtlean.com/2012/09/24/body-fat-percentage-men-women/

Thank you for the advice and the link, I tried to split my gigantic wall of text up after you said that but I don't think I did a very good job...
By low body fat percentage, I meant in the healthy range, and no lower than 15%. I am not really trying to achieve a look exactly, I would just like to be very muscular/lean and athletic.