Q: Hey Mike, I'm 13 years old, and recently lost about 25 pounds. I went from.. 140-145 to now around 120-125.. it was mainly a diet of .. skipping meals..and eating next to no junk.. and doing workouts each night.. now.. I'm finding myself afraid of gaining the weight back..as winters starting.. I have a membership to a gym.. but rarely go..as I'm always by myself.. I wanna stay 'ripped' for vacation .. any ideas of things I can do to stay in shape?.. like a plan?

A: First off, I strongly advise against trying to lose any more weight. Whenever you lose significant amount of weight at your age you jeopardize your future growth! Instead of losing weight, focus on being active and eating well (which it sounds like you're doing -- good job!) and your body's development will take care of the rest. Getting and staying in shape is easy for a teenager as long as the diet is not complete junk (unfortunately it too often is).

So with that in mind, I'd say you normalize your diet and stabilize your weight. Continue to eat healthy, but don't skip any meals. Instead have several small healthy meals throughout the day. Check out my Nutrition article to learn how to structure your diet. Again, don't try to lose any more weight. Just eat enough to maintain your present weight. But eat healthy. In 2-3 years you'll be entering your main growth spurt when you can really put on muscle if you wanted to. If you learn and maintain a healthy diet till then, it'll be a piece of cake for you to switch to a bulking diet to gain muscle aggressively when the time comes (bulking diet is described in that same article).

For your training you can do anything from at-home workouts, to sports, to the gym... As long as you follow a healthy diet without weight gain and stay active in any way you'll keep your present physique or only improve it. If you're interested in working out at home, check out my no-equipment program.