I'm 13 5'6 and 144 pounds If I go to the gym 4 times a week losing about 300 calories at a time how much will I lose in a month?

Answer 1

Here's a few things that may be helpful:

1. One pound, no matter what your body size is, equals 3,500 calories.

So, if you went to the gym 4 times a week for a month, that's about 17 visits and if you burn 300 calories each time, that's 17 x 300 = 5100 calories burned, which is 1.45 or roughly 1 1/2 pounds.

So, you'd lose about one and a half pounds in a month.

But, its not quite as simple as that.

2. Here's the second part. Your body is more or less like an engine, just like putting gas in a car. While lots of diets try to outsmart your body by excluding certain foods or saying that some foods are "good" or "bad" really its much more simple. Some foods definitely have more nutritional vitamins and minerals in them, and some may have more calories per bite than others (think snickers bar bite vs apple bite) but at the end of the day, calories are only a way to count energy units.

If you are 5'6" and 144 pounds and are not really active or walking alot (besides the gym trips) and are a 13 year old female, on average you would need about 1400 or 1500 calories a day just to power your body through breathing and growing and doing all its basic functions while staying at the same weight, if you were lying in bed doing nothing. Of course just normal day to day stuff requires energy, so you actually need a little more, like about 1600 calories a day, to maintain your current weight.

So here's the machine part. If you eat less than 1600 a day, you lose weight, if you eat more, your body stores it as fat. Its that simple. In theory, if you ate nothing at all for two days (1600 x 2 = 3200) you'd lose almost a pound - remember 3500 calories is one pound. HOWEVER, THAT WOULD BE VERY DANGEROUS and is a terrible idea - not only would it make you sick, your body would freak out and think, "oh no, there's no food around, I better slow down and work with less." You want your body to keep happy and keep going and burning calories as normally as possible.

So what if you ate only 1300 calories a day instead of 1600? That's 300 calories less each day...so after a week that would be 300 x 7 = 2100 calories less. That's a lot safer and healthier. And how bout every day you exercise (on average) 200 calories as well. Now if you're eating 300 less than you need and burning off 200 more, that's subtracting 500 a day which would be 3500 after a week, and you'd lose a pound each week.

So check out the calories listed on boxes of food and try to avoid eating things that you can't find out how many calories are in (like in restaurants - or go online - fast food chains usually have places that list calories for most menu items). For things like fruits and veggies or anything else without a box, Google it - there's lots of info out there on average calories in foods - and make sure to check the serving size on those boxes too. Peanut butter may only have 200 calories but that's for 2 tablespoons. If you normally eat 6 tablespoons, then guess what, that was just 600 calories and that makes a big difference.

You don't have to become a math wizard or count every last thing, but gain some awareness of which foods you commonly eat contain more or less calories, and if you are working out, don't ruin it by then eating as many ( or more than) the calories you burned and defeat the whole purpose.

Finally, try to find exercise that you LIKE TO DO, with a friend, in a group or outdoors when possible. If you get into a good routine of eating healthy and not TOO much high calories foods, and exercising regularly, things should work out fine.

And keep in mind that the normal recommended weight range for your height of 5'6" for a grown woman is somewhere between 115 and 155 pounds, so you are already at a healthy weight if you are 144. If you want to lose a little that's ok, but don't over do it - you will probably find that gaining some muscle tone from exercising is more important to improving how you look than your actual weight anyway since you are in the normal and healthy range.