Hello girls,

my name's Rebecca, I'm a sixteen year-old overweight girl who dares to dream of something different. This summer I will be visiting Italy and I want to be able to do so confidently, wearing dresses and bikini's. My number one inspiration is Gok Wan, who used to be obese and lost half of his own weight. Now thát's not something I'm looking for, but it sure is a HUGE inspiration.

I would like to weigh around 55 kilo's and I am 165 centimeters (approximately 5'5) tall.

Thanks for reading! I'll update my food and exercise schedule soon.

Welcome aboard! Glad to have you join in on the fun here. If you visit often, you will find the education, motivation and encouragement you need to succeed at you goal. The trip to Italy sounds awesome.

We'll look forward to you reporting back with your plans and ideas. Wow - trip to Italy!

Good luck!

Alright, here's what I eat spread over the day:

For breakfast, I make myself a sandwich with ham which is approximately around 69 calories. I drink water with it, and take some chicken stock (9 calories) once I get to school. I walk to school and burn 77 calories on my way there.

For lunch I'll have around the same as for breakfast, but include either an apple or an orange. I drink water, again.

When I get home I eat a few crackers (two, which makes 108 calories, full-grain knäckebröd's, which is some sort of Swedish cracker).

And for dinner I eat what my parents eat- normal food, mostly, if my parents decide to have lasagna or something else (fries etcetera), I'll have a salad, which I am doing tonight again. I drink a glass of semi-skimmed milk with this and have some yoghurt or skimmed custard (Dutch custom) for dessert.

I spread my sandwiches with halvarine to take some needed fats in. I approximately burn (by sporting) around 430 calories a day. Some days may differ: I try to stay around 1000 calories a day, and when I save up some of them I allow myself a treat during the weekend (which will be burned off since I do horsebackriding quite a lot).

Any suggestions on what I should try to eat more? Any suggestions on working out? I am trying to get started on a LegMagic (GOOGLE IT!), but it's hard and my muscles get sore really quickly even though I do a good warming up and cooling down by walking stairs.

Your eating plan sounds like a good start. I would recommend you drink eight 8 ounce glasses (or 64 oz) per day. If you use liters, that will be one for you to figure out.) I think you need to add a veggie at lunch and a second piece of fruit everyday. Are you taking a vitamin? With only 1000 calories a day (which in my opinion is low with the amount of exercise you are doing everyday), I would say you aren't getting all of the nutrients you need. At your age, a balanced diet is important.