Two unrelated questions: Ahstma and Calorie Intake

[Slindsay]

Two almost completely separate issues here:

1: Asthma

For the first time in 5 years I had to go see the doc's about my asthma, I've been put on an inhaler and given some low end steroid tablets due to some inflammation in the lungs, probably from hayfever. I was wondering, what is the best way to approach cardio work with this going on? Should I only do light workouts or should I do none at all? If I feel wheezy then should I aoid high intensity work or should I just avoid working out all together for worry I may make it worse?

For now I'm doing nowt about it and just leaving off till I see the doc for a follow up in a week or so, but as I feel fine most of the time now I was wondering if it might help to do a bit of a workout?

2: Calorie intake

I've always gone off the old 2,500 calories a day recommended intake for a male but recently I sat own and followed one of the schemes in Ross Ematts books to calculate how much I should be eating and it came back saying I ought to be eating a whopping 4,000 calories a day even with minimal exercise!

This left me wondering, if I've been eating 2,250 cal a day and doing quite a lot of exercise, is it possible that I really have actually been starving myself a bit and slowing my metabolism down? I know when I was trying to cut down that I was tired all the time and recently when I went off the diet for a week I actually still lost a couple of pounds even though I was eating a fair deal.

Anyway, jut wondering how many calories I should limit myself too if I want to loose weight basically.

[Socrastein]

Does resistance training bother your asthma? Heavy lifting will improve your anaerobic and aerobic endurance, as well as boost your metabolism for fat loss, which is what most people do cardio for, so if you can get the benefits without the high heart rate and wheezing, I'd suggest sticking with that.

As for calories, are you trying to lose weight, gain, or maintain? How much you should be eating will obviously fluctuate depending on your goals. I weight 200 lbs for example and I lose weight with about 2,800 calories a day. Unless you're quite a bit lighter than me, there's a good chance 2,500 might be too low, no matter what your goal is.