Hi , I'm no expert but I recommend at least 3-5 days a week of cardio ( I usually do 30-35 minutes ) and 3 days a week of light strength training- My diet is low cal also 1600 or so a day ,1800 on weekends- some of my staples food wise are 100 calorie bags of popcorn , edy's slow churned ice cream , skinney cow ice cream cones , cracker barrell 2% cheddar cheese , hershey 100 calorie chocolate pretzels - dark chocolate and wafer bars- for my excercises I tend to always go to self.com and they have great recipes too along with a free food diary and different calculators. Good luck to you !