Hi! Running doesn’t really build muscle like weight training does. I’d say that gaining 3.5 kg of muscle because of running sounds unrealistic, even if you had very little muscle mass when you first started.

Showjumping is actually closer to weight training than running. Have you been doing more showjumping and eating a bit more to ‘compensate’ your runs? That could be an explanation. 

But besides the scale, how do your clothes fit? Do you still fit in your favorite pair of jeans? Here are a few tips to gauge where you’re at: 

Hi! 57kg for 1m73 is actually pretty skinny (but still a normal healthy weight for your height). I’m guessing you probably have ‘skinny-fat’ tendencies: meaning even if you’re slim you have too much body fat and too little muscle mass. 

You may want to try to build a bit more muscle mass. Building muscle means regular strength training, clean eating, and upping your protein intake.

Concerning the workouts, you can back off on the cardio. Focus on basic multi-joints movements such as squats (with weights), lunges, push-ups, dips, chin-ups and presses, making sure your muscles have enough time to recover between workouts. 

Hi! Thanks for your message which gives me a pretty realistic idea of what you’re eating and what you’re doing.

Here are a couple of suggestions to lose the stomach flat:
- Eat plain oatmeal instead of commercial cereals for breakfast.
- Stop light snacking throughout the day. Just stick to 2 snacks maximum. Ditch the pretzels and the cheerios. Snacks on fresh raw veggies (cucumber, celery, carrots) and lean protein (tuna, cottage cheese).
- Kick it up a notch when it comes to exercise. If you want to lose belly fat you need to do some kind of cardio intervals and some kind of weight training. Yoga is very good for you but if your goal is fat loss – it should be an “extra” when you’ve done your strength/metabolic/cardio work.

Hi, you’re at a normal weight for your height. 1,400 calories are not enough for an active 15 year-old girl who’s at a normal weight. And 1,200 is definitely not a healthy range. Teen girls need 1,900 to 2,300 calories (see this article from Jillian Michaels’s “Master your metabolism”). Even if you’ve finished puberty, you don’t have the same needs as an adult when it comes to calories and sleep.

If you want to shape up at your age, you need to look at the quality of the foods you’re eating. Eat more vegetables and protein instead of focusing on calorie amounts. At your age and where you’re at right now, it doesn’t make sense restricting yourself.

Hi! Well it’s difficult for me to tell because I live in Europe so I don’t have a good idea of American prices. $20-30 sounds very low. But you definitely can eat healthy and cheap, here are a few suggestions:

• Buy beans and lentils: they’re nutritious and a good value for money.
• Buy canned fish.
• Buy local vegetables and fruits.
• Don’t buy bread, cereals and biscuits: just buy plain oats.
• Don’t buy in bulk: buying in bulk is usually one of the classical tip you read to save money, but it’s not that interesting for you as a single person because you don’t need that much food anyway. 
• Couponing can be interesting for toiletries but when it comes to food products, couponing is usually all about unhealthy products you shouldn’t be buying in the first place.
• Plan what you need for the week, make a list and stick to it to avoid impulse buys.
• Never throw away food, freeze for another time.

That’s a very good question! People have different definitions, for example: 
- ”Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” (From Michael Pollan’s seven rules of eating)
- “Eat real food”, “Can’t read it? don’t eat it”, “Avoid any food that has a TV commercial”
- “Eat healthy 80 percent of the time, indulge in your favorite foods 20 percent of the time.”
- “Eat lean meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds”. (paleo diet)
- “Eat fruits, vegetables, plenty of leafy greens, whole grain products, nuts, seeds, and legumes.” (vegan diet)

All in all, healthy eating means eating foods that give YOU the nutrients you need to maintain your health, feel good, and have energy in the long run.  

Don’t over-think it and make healthy eating too complicated, because it isn’t. It may sound cliché, but learning about what’s healthy for you is more about listening to what your body is really telling you than reading about what works for others.

Hi! You can find plenty of inspiration by browsing tumblr or pinterest: 
www.tumblr.com/tagged/healthy+lunch
pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=healthy+lunch

But don’t make it a point to make yourself picture-perfect pretty lunch boxes like the ones on those pictures! Just grab some dinner left-overs, add some raw veggies, a fruit, a handful of nuts etc.

When it comes to things that are filling, remember to include a source of protein in every meal. Regarding carbs, I actually prefer lentils, beans or chick peas rather than bread or wraps ; I find they fill me up longer, but it’s just a matter of personal preferences. 

Hi Adrienne, 

You shouldn’t worry about getting bulkier legs. It’s normal to have the feeling that your legs get slightly bigger during or right after a training session because of increased blood flow in the muscles. 

In the end, no matter your exercise routine, the bottom line is that your body can’t create new tissues out of thin air: it can’t get bulkier unless you give it more building blocks coming from the food you eat. 

Exercise programs that claim to build “long lean muscles” are basically always coupled with 1,200-1,400 calorie diet plans. That’s why they won’t produce ‘bulky’ muscles, not because they use some special exercises.

If you ask me I’d much rather eat 2,000 calories, feel great and look bulky :) 

But here are a few suggestions to get the results you’re after: 

- Where did you find that training routine you’re currently doing? Is it normal that you’re not weight-training your legs at all? Ask the trainers at your gym for a new routine, it’s usually included in your membership. 

- A way to make your lower body look smaller is to make your upper body look wider: train back, arms, shoulders with heavy weights. 

- Watch your salt and sugar intake more carefully. No matter your routine, if you’re pear-shaped your legs will never look sleek if you don’t clean up your diet. 

Hi! Why focus on a number when you’re already satisfied with the way you look? Two persons who have the same height and weight can carry it very differently. It depends on their builds, the length of their arms/legs/torso, their ratio of fat to muscle… A large chunk of body weight comes from bones (14 to 20%), and over half of your body’s weight is water. 

And even if you do need to lose a few kilos (which I really doubt), don’t wait to “finally reach your goal” to be happy with your body. You’ll be wasting tons of time that you’ll never get back. Don’t waste your teen years obsessing over a number. 

Instead of focusing on less (fewer kilos, less bread and sweets), focus on more: eating more vegetables, being more active, doing more etc. 

Hi Kaitlin, 

Here are a few ideas to educate your taste buds: 

- Educate yourself about food and flavors: learn how to cook with the help of a foodie friend, or get ideas and inspiration by watching healthy cooking shows on Youtube. 

- Don’t knock a healthy food that you think you hate until you try it- twice! Your taste buds may be so out of whack from being coated with preservatives, chemicals, fats, salt and extra sugars that you need a little time to learn to appreciate a healthy food. 

- Finally, I don’t mean to sound like your parents, but 925 million people are hungry or malnourished around the world today. That’s roughly 3 times the population of the U.S. Realize that having access to various healthy foods is actually a privilege. 

Green tea, but if you really want to keep it caffeine-free, try spirulina. The powder tastes like seaweed, but you can get it in caps too. And don’t forget vitamin C: no need to get caps, just go for bell peppers, kiwis, pomegranates, and any kinds of citrus fruits (clementines, blood oranges, grapefruits). 

Here is an example of a meal plan to add more healthy foods to your diet: 

But if you’re an active teen girl, you could easily need up to 2,300 calories per day. Try to eat more fruits, nuts, peanut butter, avocados, sweet potatoes, oily fish. When it comes to your workouts, since you’re 16 and a dancer, you don’t need to do anything more than what you’re already doing. Feel free to add some weight training if you want: basic body weight exercises like push-ups or dips. 

Hi! These would be my must-dos: 

#1 You wrote the first one: focus on the positive, enjoy and embrace your new lifestyle. People rock way more at things they enjoy.

#2 Consistency: “stick-to-it”-attitude. “It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.”

#3 Knowing what works for you (for me that would be these 10 simple rules). If you abandon ship and hop from one trend to the next, always looking for the next big thing, you risk losing sight of the fundamentals or second-guessing yourself even when your current approach is already working. 

Hi Nicola, 

I don’t think the meal pattern is a problem (eating breakfast/lunch together) as long as the total of your daily calorie intake stays about the same. It’s not as if you were skipping meals during the day since your body is at rest. And in your specific situation, despite this late sleeping schedule, you do get enough sleep for your age because you wake up very late. 

What you’re missing however is hours of daylight. Plus you’re going to feel like a walking coma when school starts. 

Here are a few ideas that may help you fall asleep earlier:

- Since you’re on holidays, you have enough time to exercise. Try a new physical activity that you don’t usually do. For example, if you’re used to running but you never go to the swimming pool, go swim for 45 min. There’s probably a good chance that you won’t go to bed at 1 am that night because your body will probably feel unusually tired. Other new activities could be ice skating, roller skating, cycling, trying a free class at a gym etc. 

- Avoid caffeine: not only coffee, tea and energy drinks ; anything containing cocoa (chocolate milk for example) also contains a small dose of caffeine. 

- Keep the lights dim at night as bedtime approaches. Avoid screens after 10:30 pm: reading on your ipad, checking your phone… Their screens mimics daylight, convincing your brain that it’s still daytime.

Finally, keep in mind that it’s normal for your biological clock to shift forward during adolescence. It’s actually a physical thing. (http://voices.yahoo.com/teenager-cant-sleep-all-night-blame-their-biological-4300577.html) Just try to keep it under control: try to go to bed between 11 and 12 pm. Remember that as a teenager you have special needs and you do need around 9.5 hours of sleep per day, actually 1 to 2 extra hours compared to children and adults. 

Hi! Here are my suggestions: 

• Stop comparing yourself to your friends: www.wikihow.com/Stop-Comparing-Yourself-to-Others
   
• Set yourself a couple of realistic goals and act on them. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday.
   
• Educate yourself about fitness & nutrition to eat & train smart. Although the Internet provides tons of information, I think a good book is the way to go if you’re a newbie. Good basic books for beginners are The Eat-Clean diet by Tosca Reno and The Body Fat Solution by Tom Venuto.