Weight-loss expert targets women 5'4'' and under with plan to stay perfectly petite

With nearly half of all women in America measuring 5’4’’ or under, a lifestyle and weight-loss expert says he has the solution for them to avoid gaining weight and staying perfectly petite.

Author Jim Karas’ new book “The Petite Advantage” hails the benefits of being a smaller woman because “if you’re smaller, every pound you lose really shows.”

But Karas adds that most petite women are unaware that they cannot “eat like the big girls” and need to eat at least 40 calories less than their taller counterparts.

“It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you look at it over a year, you could gain 4lbs of fat,” Karas said of eating over the recommended calorie amount. “Over ten years, [that’s] 40 lbs of fat; over 20 years, [you could gain] over 120lbs of fat just because you’re a smaller stature. “

Karas encouraged these petite women to frontload their calories in the morning and make breakfast the biggest meal of the day.  He said most women gain weight because they want to save their calories for later in the day.

“That’s the recipe to gain weight,” he said.

40 percent of women’s calories should be in their breakfast, to tip your “satiety mechanisms, that’s your feeling of fullness.”

Karas also added that his diet recommends women avoid cardio and “strengthen to lengthen” with weight training instead.