Your age is also a factor in suggested calorie intake, but regardless of age if you want to lose weight running is the most effective cardio workout. Be sure to run 5 days a week, and no less than 25 minutes. If running is too high impact for you then swimming is a good alternative, it is no impact and also helps to develop a more balanced muscle structure (just keep in mind that since it is a less intense activity you will need to do it for a longer period of time). As I said age partly decides your calorie intake, but i'd reccomend 2200/day, or there are websites that calculate your dormant metabolic rate (the ammount of calories that you would burn in a 24 hour period of sleep) so you can find that number and add roughly 1000. Hahah, seems i have the opposite problem, i run middle distance in track and I am also training for my first sprint triathlon (750m swim, 20km bike, 5k run) this summer and if i don't get upwards of 3000 calories daily i will lose the little muscle mass that i still have. |