Dear Dr. Susan,

My doctor told me that I am overweight...the thing is I hardly eat anything (about 2 small meals a day) and I am active! But, I still seem to be gaining more and more weight. I am not at all happy with my body and feel like crying every time I look in the mirror. Are there any pills for people like me who have a very hard time losing weight?

Thanks,

Desperate to lose weight!

Dear Desperate,

If you're only eating two small meals a day and THAT'S IT, then the problem is that you're probably not eating enough calories. This is even more true if you're active. When you don't eat enough food/calories, your body thinks you're starving it--and you are!! So your body will go into a preservation mode, which means that it will hold on to every single calorie that you eat or drink because it doesn't want to starve. This is why you won't lose weight--and might even gain--even if you feel like you're not really eating much.

Most teenage girls need about 2,000 calories a day to maintain their weight. You need this to grow your muscles, have energy for learning and sports and be able to focus and have fun! If you want to lose weight--and your doctor has given you the OK--then you need to reduce your calorie intake only a LITTLE each day. I would suggest that you eat about 1,800 calories a day to start and see if you begin to lose weight over two or three weeks. You should lose  NO MORE than a half to a pound a week. If you don't lose weight at 1,800 calories, reduce by 100 calories a day for another week or two. I suggest that you no go lower than about 1,500 calories a day.

If you need to increase your exercise a bit, and make healthier food choices, that's the way to go, rather than continuing to eat less and less! LMK how it goes for you!

xoxo

Dr. Susan