Eating too little/excercising too much?

I'm 5'7 and weigh 120 lbs.

For 6 days a week I run for an hour on the elliptical which burns 950 calories (I run extremely fast with a lot of resistance).

I consume about 1130 calories a day (this is before subtracting the calories I burn, which means I take in about 150 a day).

I'm not anorexic because I eat, but I obviously have some body issues. Is this unhealthy? What should I do instead?

I think you probably already know the answer. In my opinion, you need to eat more. You shouldn't eat below 1200 calories when you're sedentary, let alone working out 6 days a week. You should probably be eating closer to 2000 calories a day. Use the tools and see what it says.

BTW - are you trying to lose, gain, or maintain your weight?

well, i like the basic form of my body. so i guess i would say i'm trying to maintain. the thing i really need to do is tone, but i have no idea where to start or what to do. i know that if i started adding toning excercises, i could add more to my daily intake. i just need to figure this out. the reason i'm so harsh is because the only way i konw how to look better is to get thinner, i don't know how to add definition or any of that to my body. so i just keep running.

You should eat 1200 after you minus the calories from exercise... so y'know, either cut back on the amount of exercise or eat! :)    

No, thin is anorexic.  Tones is muscular.  I'd suggest running over to wal-mart, target, what-have-you, and buy a resistance band or a few sets of hand weights.  You can do a few very simple exercises every day to define your muscles.  Add some sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups, and you'll be fine.

Just remember, if you run too much, you'll start eating away at your lean body weight, aka muscle.  You'll actually look worse.  You don't need to stop running, but up your protein intake some and then add some toning.

Have fun!

Wow, Trying99, you basically described how I feel in a nutshell. I do the exact same thing, and I'm trying really hard to change my conception of what toned/pretty/healthy really is. it's good to hear someone's response to this too. I'm with ya, and I hope that both of us can get over our mind-block of what is good and what isn't.

best wishes!

Lot of people would say there's no such thing as "toning". You either grow muscle mass or lose fat. Both of these combined could count as "toning", and both cannot be done at the same time.

If you eat like that on an excercise day, you end up losing muscle mass, which means your body fat percentage goes up, which means you're doing the opposite of toning (you could call it "blubbering" your body or something to that effect). In order to recover lost muscle mass you have caused by not eating enough you need to have a calorie surplus and excercise (such as resistance training). To lose the fat off the top your excisting muscles you need a calorie deficit. In order to do the latter without also losing muscle, your deficit can't be very big.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-b urned

theres a calculator you can enter your activity/age/exercise.
you need to eat a lot more than that.


runners can eat at least 25oo a day usually.

men should never drop below 1500
and usually feel and look best at 2000

Trying, when I see posts like this one, I can't help but wonder if the writer has used the tools provided here on calorie-count.com.  These tools are absolutely free.

Start by determining your BMI.  This will tell you if you need to lose, maintain or gain.  Then determine your expenditure calories. 

The next step is to log all your food and all activities over and above your normal activity level.  You should be eating no more than 500 to 700 calories less than your expenditure, and this should never go below 1200 calories for women and 1500 calories for men. 

I urge you to use and follow the information you get here.

antoinette, I'm at a loss as to why we would need another calculator when the one here at CC Tools work fine, although I admit the amount of information you get from nutritiondata is greater.  

"although I admit the amount of information you get from nutritiondata is greater.  "

answered your own question right there. lol

plus too some of the calcs on here are just off for me (small frame) so i have a few others i reference and compare.

the bmi calc here is totally off for me. it says uner 20 is underweight which its not. its under 18. something or other....

the allowance calculator doesnt have the activity choices on the same page or have what they consider in detail to be "active"
which could be twisted by personal opinion.

i also just personally believe its better to get your information from multiple sources and devise your own personal truth from the summation of all sources.

i didnt think it was looked down upon to be well informed?