hi there! well, fat is important for the diet for several reasons:

• Fat is important for slowing the digestive process so you are not hungry an hour after eating a meal. 
• Fat also adds satiety and a sense of fullness after eating a meal. 
• One role of fat in the diet is to aid in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, which include vitamins A, D, E, and K.
• Fat is the most concentrated source of energy in the diet, providing nine calories per gram while carbohydrates and protein have only four calories per gram.
• The human body can make all but two fatty acids, linoleic acid and linolenic acid. Because these two fatty acids are essential to body function, they must be obtained from the diet. 
• The body uses linoleic acid to make arachidonic acid, which is the form that is used in the body for synthesis of the hormone-like compounds that are essential for blood pressure regulation, blood clot formation, blood lipid synthesis, and immune response to injury and disease.
• The body can make eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from linolenic acid. EPA and DHA are important for normal growth and development in children. Without these fatty acids, children would not grow normally.
•  EPA and DHA are also active in brain and eye development. These fatty acids may also be important in the prevention and treatment of heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, and cancer, especially in adults. EPA and DHA are also used by the body to make hormone-like compounds which are essential to many functions.

hi there! thank you so much, sweet! :)

yes, i do! i usually run on the treadmill at the gym, or go for a run in the afternoon (outdoors) as my morning workout before college doesn’t seem enough sometimes (as it’s only 20/30 mins).

and yes, since i have become running more often i have more lean muscle building on my thighs, however i do various weight training exercises to build muscle on my legs so i’m not sure if it’s from that or the running… probably a bit of both!

if you want noticeable results, i would team cardio (running) with weight training :) good luck!

hi there! i am sorry for your diagnosis. would you mind telling me what you define as working out? do you mean ‘hard’ cardio? like using the treadmill and running and stuff? you could always go for walks or hoola hoop which won’t be too hard on your heart but will help you to keep fit.

i can’t really answer the question properly until i know what restrictions your heart condition has on your exercise regime, i’m sorry! :)

maybe you aren’t drinking enough water. click here for more details :)

and remember, don’t give up! weight loss is a slow, infuriating process with lots of ups and downs, so don’t get disheartened by the slow process :)

hi there! thank you so much :) and yeah they seemed pretty gradual to me, i wouldn’t wake up and go ‘OMG I LOOK SO SKINNY ALL OF A SUDDEN!’… they changed seemed very gradual so that’s why i was so shocked by the progress photo!

well to have the best chance of keeping the weight off and to be 100% healthy i would recommend losing 2lbs a week, so that is 8lbs in a month… meaning it would probably take you almost two months if you work super hard :) good luck!

thank you so much!

i don’t really count calories exactly, but i estimate. i have good judgement on what is going to nourish my body and what is going to tarnish it, so i make my decisions based on that, really. and in thinking that way i am usually eating around 1200 calories a day.

i hope this answered your questions. if you need any tips on what your eating habits should look like, please look here and here for inspiration <3

eat clean, watch your portion sizes and drink lots of water. these elements are just as important as a full on exercise regime :)

apparently you need to be at around 18% body fat to be able to see abs, so maybe work on losing fat and then toning the muscle to get the muscle showing :)

ahhh how do you know i was vegan!? :D well tbh half the reason i fell off the vegan wagon was from the lack of diversity of food i could actually eat; i underestimated it and didn’t think it through enough.

however, i just google searched it and you can view some websites which have some good vegan recipes (the vegan society, BBC good food, simple vegan recipes)

and remember, you can always search vegan under tags on tumblr, i got a lot of inspiration for meals as well as recipes from there :)

good luck!

you are at a healthy weight for your height, according to your bmi. if you want your abs to visible you need to get down to around 18% body fat.

i hope this helps! please message me back if you need anything at all :)

ah thank you so much! you should make sure you are getting a net of around 1200. so, for example, if you eat 1200 calories and burn off 400, make sure you eat the 400 again. otherwise you could get people who eat 1200 and burn it all off from binge exercising, which is not good for your body as it will have no energy left to run off!

i hope this clears some things up, please mail me again if you need anything! <3

sometimes when you reduce your calories too low or skip meals your metabolism slows down in order to conserve energy, so it is a possibility that when you increased your calorie intake your metabolism sped up, thus why it appears that you lost weight. i am not a doctor, but this is my educated guess, so i hope this is okay. try upping your calorie intake to 1200+ a day to ensure that your body is getting enough energy.

ah thank you so much, that means a lot to me :’) i was doing a lot of cardio and strength training about 5 or 6 times a week (on those pages you will see specifically what exercises i did and how much for).  i often used interval training as it speeds up your metabolism and encourages fat loss. good luck sweetheart <3

thanks so much :’) suggestions on what to eat can be found here, i usually stick by this guide for healthy portion sizes :) i hope this helps!