Susie Burrell
Dietitian

Susie Burrell is a sports dietitian and nutritionist with an Honours degree in psychology. Susie is currently the obesity dietitian at The Children's Hospital at Westmead and is also the consultant sports dietitian to a number of elite sporting teams including the St George Illawarra Dragons, Parramatta Eels and the Vodacom Blue Bulls. Susie specialises in fat loss and splits her time between her private practice rooms in Sydney and Wollongong where she sees individuals, athletes and children for all dietary needs.

Susie is no longer answering queries, but her previous answers remain for reference.

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Weight loss

Question

I am an active woman of 60 who works full time. Since going through menopause I have put on about 3kgs of weight which I can't shift. I'm very careful with what I eat — no salt, very conscious of fat in products, etc. But now I need to take one tablespoon of flaxseed oil, and one tablespoon of lecithin granules on my cereal at breakfast, which must be adding weight. I walk twice a week (five kilometers in 50 minutes) and don't sit down when I can stand or walk. Would the flaxseed oil and lecithin granules be adding to the weight? Also I have cholesterol of 5.6 so am very reluctant to eat anything that would add to that. I also play competition tennis for three hours on Friday mornings. Any ideas?

Answer

You may need to do some light resistance work to increase your muscle mass and as a result increase your metabolic rate; or the number of calories you are burning each day rather than trying to burn more off. Once we reach the age of 30 we lose muscle mass every year after that, which means we need fewer calories each day. If you are already doing plenty of cardio training (which you are) try a light weights class or have a personal trainer write you a light resistance program that you can do at the gym or at home which will help you to burn more calories every day.

Answer published 6/8/07.