I'm 16 years old and around 250 pounds. I've recently realized not only the state my health is in but the state my life is in. I have very few friends and I'm very shy. I have a hard time making new friends, but not because I don't want to. I'm too embarrassed of what people will think of me.
I really want to lose a lot of this weight and quickly. I would like to at least lose a considerable amount by the time school starts up in August. I can't afford to buy diet foods and I have only the space in a small shared bedroom in which to attempt to exercise. Does anyone have any suggestions? Please help.
By emily perez from TX
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Lots of people have lost weight with Weight Watchers. You eat healthy, everyday food. If you don't want to spend the money to join Weight Watchers, you can get the 1972 version of the Weight Watchers Program for free here:
Even though it is from 1972 and you count exchanges instead of counting points, it is a very good diet and many people have lost a lot of weight on it. Many people still use this version of Weight Watcher's Program. The best of luck to you.
There is a great free program online called sparkpeople.com. It has a lot of the same information and tracking that Weight Watchers has.
I have lost about 50 pounds in the last year or so. I started at 218 and am at about 165 now. I would pick either exercise or nutrition to concentrate on first and then add the other component in later, maybe after the summer. Also, you should consult your doctor. Sometimes there are medical reasons why people do not lose weight easily. And your doctor might be able to give you better tips about dieting.
If you pick exercise, you might enjoy getting a pedometer and setting daily step goals for yourself. Walking is free and this is a wonderful time of the year for it. If you have a dog or can borrow one for walks, this can make it more enjoyable. You could also try to get a group to walk together. It is a lot harder to wimp out if you know other people are going to notice that you are gone. Another thing you might consider is an exercise or dance class. I did belly dancing. It was very fun and feminine and there were people of all sizes in the class. Even if you don't lose a lot of weight, you will develop grace and beauty, no matter what your size.
If you decide to pick nutrition first (which might be a good idea if you don't think you are eating well now), I would recommend cutting out as much processed foods and fast food as possible.
One last bit of advice is to go slowly but consistently. Don't expect that you are going to lose weight quickly or easily. A pound a week is average, although you may lose more, especially at first. If you lose it much faster than that, you will probably wind up going back up, maybe even heavier than you started. If you mess up one day, don't let it blow the whole deal, just pick back up tomorrow.
Good luck, you won't believe how much healthier and more beautiful you feel, just by losing a small amount of weight! I used to pick up 10 or 20 pound sacks of potatoes at the store and marvel that I had had been walking around with that much weight.
As a 15 year old, I changed very quickly to being a slimmer more confident girl when I took up yoga. The breathing exercises calmed me down and everything started to work out for me from that point. I did not spend any money but used a library book to find out what to do, and exercised in my bedroom.
Are you taking any medication? Some drugs can cause you to blow up like a balloon. Eating more healthily should save you money, not cost more. You seem to be an intelligent lady and with your positive attitude you are half way there already. Let us all know how you go on.
No need to buy "diet foods." Just try to eat fresh fruits, vegatables, good fiber foods. Stay away from sodas and drink a glass of water before eating a meal. Eat a healthy breakfast. I believe you shouldn't eat after 6:00pm. Thrifty members will gladly give you more advice!
Weight Watchers is a great choice on what to look for as portion control and what you should choose to eat. Your local library will have copies of Weight Watcher books and probably your local thrift stores as well. If you can, walking is great exercise...be safe in where you choose to go...possibly just walking around your mall.
I hope and pray your parents will help you in your endeavors. Ask a friend to help you stay accountable to your goals. God bless you as you try to make these changes in your life.
Sparklepeople is not as good as weight watchers. Sometimes people who are overweight need support from other overweight people. Go to a weight watcher meeting. It is easy to lose when you know you are going to weigh in each week and sometimes we need that support. I know from experience. Not everybody needs this but most people who have a lot to lose or who really have a weight problem do. Only you know about you! Good Luck!
I am so proud that you are making this decision at such a young age! Walk, walk, walk. It doesn't cost a thing, except a little sweat, etc., and you get good sunshine or fresh air while you do it. Swimming is another great activity, and it won't be hard on your feet, legs, etc.
Try cutting your food portions down by 1/3 as well. Eat less of the high calorie food and more of the low calorie food. Do not deprive yourself of anything! If everyone else is eating cake & ice cream, you do too! Just not an enormous portion and never eat seconds on anything. It's gonna be hard, but you can do it. I know you can! Good luck!
Oooh, oooh! And bicycling, skateboarding, skating, walking in the park. Get out of the house, away from the food, take a water bottle with you, stay out until you are so tired that all you want to do is go to bed and sleep. Another good trick is to eat a small portion, probably less than you want, and wait 20 minutes to see if you really do want the rest of your helping. Showering and long baths seem to turn off the cravings for me. It would be so good if you were near the beaches, so you could be there a lot of the time. Do not eat in front of the TV. Kick that habit if you enjoy TV, etc. If you want to snack, do so only in the kitchen or dining room. Never in bed or bedroom. In fact, only eat at the table. If you have a scoop of Ice Cream, take it to the table. Dill pickle? Table. Orange? Table. Water? Drink it wherever you want to, but if it's soda, tea, etc? Table. You want to change, it's gonna have to be a big change.
Good for you! Wish more gals your age were as health-conscious. I know from experience, dancing is a great calorie-burner. If you're too shy to join a dance class, put on some music at home and rock out! I also agree with the walking idea, and pedometers aren't too expensive if you shop around.
As for nutrition; Dr Phil McGraw and his son Jay both have great books on weight loss. You may be able to borrow one or both from your local library. Take notes and copy the recipes into a notebook. Use water as your primary beverage, and use treats like chocolate sparingly. They say you taste the first couple of bites the most intensely, so why not stop there? At least, with high-calorie foods.
Speaking of chocolate (my fave subject,) why not try dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate? The flavor is a bit more intense and less sweet, but I hear it's better for you. Nibble it slowly and let each tiny bite dissolve completely in your mouth before taking the next bite. Have a sip of water between bites, too. That way, one small (1x1") square can be as satisfying than a king-size milk chocolate bar!
You have made the first and best step just by saying you wish to lose weight. I am much older than you, I am 52 but I have lost 70lbs in the last 4months by eating small breakfast and a reasonable dinner. Use "I can't believe its not butter spray as your butter. Use Splenda for sugar substitute they taste just like the real thing. The most important thing I have done is walk to a t.v video walking tape by Leslie Sansone "walk the walk" You need to walk for 30 min 6 days a week and you "will" lose weight. Also have sugar free Popsicles or fudgesicles as a treat at night. Good luck and God bless!
Try for 2-5# loss a week. This will not be easy, but you can do it and the weight can stay off. Don't eat sugar (diet and sugar subs). Eat fruits and vegetables mainly...we're talking major amounts to fill you up. Brown rice is good if you are willing to cook it. Eat as few prepared foods (food products) as possible. Walk. Dance. Stay away from diet pills, they'll just mess up your insides, but do take vitamins (drugstore brand multivitamin that you take one time a day). Good luck. It's not easy, but you will be SO glad when your clothes fit and you can wear regular people's clothes. Ask me how I know. I still go up and down some, but not to the extent I did. Good luck.
HERE ARE SEVERAL TIPS:
KEEP A RECORD OF WHAT YOU EAT -- Every time you eat, write it down. If you do this you'll be less likely to grab something high-calorie because you can't eat it without thinking about it & writing it down...
NOTHING HAPPENS OVERNIGHT -- Don't think you'll loose this weight in a month or two! ...This could take a year or two or even more to loose all the weight... Don't get discouraged!
DON'T FALL FOR GIMMICKS -- & the "melt fat off now" type drugs which contain lots of caffeine, herbs that contain ephedrine & other things that are bad for you when taken daily for dieting. Nothing "melts" or "burns" weight off. These guys are only stealing your money! The only way to loose weight is to take in less calories that you put out.
DRINK LOT'S OF WATER -- Drink a 16 ounce glass of water before you eat & you'll feel full with less food & Drink lots of water every day to help flush out your system & help clean your body of toxins.
EAT FRESH VEGGIES & NO JUNK FOOD -- Change your diet to include mostly fresh veggies & salads with a hard boiled egg on top & nonfat dressing. Stay away from anything processed & things with sugar. Eat fresh veggies, salads & eat fruit for snacks.
NOTHING FRIED -- Never eat anything fried!!! Always broil, or grill your meat & stay away from potato or corn chips & no junk food. You're milk & yogurt should be nonfat.
EAT HEALTHY SNACKS -- When you want a snack eat an apple or fresh veggies & a nonfat dip.
HAVE HEALTHY SNACKS READY -- Have healthy snacks ready to eat. Keep cut up veggies in snack-sized zip-locks in the fridge. This way they'll be ready to eat for a snack when you're hungry & you'll be less likely to grab bad stuff to eat. Another healthy treat is to freeze the Yoplait yogurt "whips" brand of yogurt in your freezer (especially the chocolate) & you'll have a healthy way to satisfy your sweet tooth! (be sure it's the kind that says "Whips" on the front)
BRING HEALTHY FOOD WITH YOU -- When traveling or at work, don't eat at the cafeteria or a fast-food restaurant, instead bring your own good food instead. Also, you can learn what to eat & what not to order at a restaurant so you can go to lunch with a friend once in a while.
EAT OFTEN -- Don't wait until you're "starving" to eat or you'll be more likely to binge. When I'm super hungry I eat things I'd never eat if I wasn't really hungry!
WATCH YOUR PORTION SIZE -- This is a tip to remember for the rest of your life: Watch your portion size! ...Most of us think a portion or a helping is twice to 3 times the size it really should is. It's best to eat smaller meals 4 or 5 timers a day.
REMEMBER YOUR END GOAL -- Think about your end goal (to be healthy & live a long wonderful life!) & don't eat when you get depressed. If something happens in your life to make you want to run to the fridge, do something else instead... Like take a walk, or work out or call a friend, post on the Internet or write in a journal.
KEEP A JOURNAL -- of your thoughts & feelings, etc while going through the process of loosing weight. Write down what things make you want to overeat & how you feel at the time.
KEEP BUSY -- If you get depressed & want to reach for the ice cream, learn to knit or crochet to keep your hands & mind busy.
YOU NEED SUPPORT -- Get involved in an online dieting support group & get a diet buddy on the Internet (or the phone) so you can encourage each other
GO FOR WALKS -- By yourself, with a friend or get a dog & walk him twice a day for 45 min to 1 hour. If you don't have a dog, ask to walk your neighbors dog. They'll be very grateful! (& you can meet lots of nice people when walking a dog... like animal lovers!) plus you feel safer with a dog by your side...
TREAT YOURSELF -- once a week. Tell yourself if you're good all week long then you ca have a reward. A small portion of something you love. Statistics show that people who treat themselves once a week tend to stick with their diets longer.
WORKOUTS YOU ACTUALLY ENJOY -- Find an exercise you love to do. I love to swim, so I do water aerobics at a gym. Dance video work outs are also really fun. They have them on TV, or cable "on demand" or you can order a dance workout DVD from Netflix (& you'll learn some great dance moves & learn how to dance at the same time!). Bicycling is also fun! If you love an exercise you'll actually do it! If you hate it, you wont stick with it.
RESISTANCE BANDS -- Since you don't have much room to exercise get some of those thick rubber bands (Resistance Bands) & use them to exercise with. You can attach one to your door knob & use it to get you arms in shape. There's a whole lot of ways to use them. See the video in the bottom URL or check out a book or video at your local library about "Resistance Band Workouts":
* Here's more info about Resistance Band workouts:
exercise.about.com/
video.google.com/
I only scanned the other posts for you., but I have been studying biology & physiology for over 30yr. Here is what I've learned; some did say to stay away from sugar. What most people don't understand is, eating carbs, i.e: anything the grows from the earth or is made from those things, with out eating fat & protein with it, will be stored as fat. The only thing that makes a difference about how much you store of what you eat, is how high on the glycemic scale the carbs are.
The glycemic scale has all the carb foods listed on it with corresponding numbers. The higher the number, the easier it can be turned into fat & stored on your body. Stay away from anything over say 40 or 50. Genetic factors play a huge role., if you have a problem storing too much fat & this seems to be your lot in life, you have to be careful. It's too easy to store that awful fat all over the place. The pancreas secrets insulin, it stores fat! If you eat carbs with out enough fat & protein to slow it down in your blood stream, you will store it as fat.
This also makes you tired & have a slow brain, then you want to eat again. What you usually want to eat is junk food & carbs alone. It a vicious circle. The only way to retrain your body, is to slow down that food digestion of carbs. Snack on cheese, hard boiled eggs, things like this. If your body has been used to foods that give quick sugar for years, then you have to quiet down those reactions in your body.
Now there is another thing that's very important, but it's really involved. You might need to increase your stomach acid, betaine hydrochloride might do this. You can get this at any health food store, it's cheap. Try taking 5 or so with each meal & when those cravings come on when you've eaten recently. The other is getting some tryptophan with P5P (B6), niacinamide & include some vitamin C & magnesium. Take it at night about 1 hour before going to sleep, you can also take it if you wake up in the middle of the night & have 5 more hours in which to sleep. It helps increase the serotonin production in your brain. Serotonin, controls craving for carbs, relaxes you, so you get quality sleep & improves brain function. Tryptopha weeks. This has very far ranging effects.
When you don't have enough production of serotonin, it effects many more things than your weight. It's important stuff. Then when you are feeling more energetic, find something active you like to do, no matter what it is, moving burns fat. If you want to do something in your room, can you lie down on the floor, if so, do crunches, push-ups & squats. Find some info about doing them correctly, so you get the most from what you are doing & don't cause trouble later. Those 3 things will work your whole body.
In the beginning, do modified push-ups, but get to the full ones. They work so many things. Keep track of how many you do in each set & try to do that amount until you feel stronger, then add a few. But what ever amount you do, even if you can only do 1 or 3 or whatever, always do that amount till you get stronger. Don't go back & don't go forward till you are ready.
Now back to eating. No matter how good you want to be, there will be times when you just have to have a piece of pizza or whatever. Don't feel guilty.; have it, enjoy it, but don't do it too often.. If you want to do it the better way, eat some cottage cheese before eating the pizza. The pizza taste will be the taste you remember & one bite tastes the same as a whole piece. You only remember the last bite. So by eating something high protein first, you don't over eat the pizza.
This goes for everything; fruit is good for you in small portions. Fruit is really quick sugar. That is something to avoid. You know a glass of orange juice has the juice of about 5 oranges in it. Who eats 5 oranges in one sitting. Hope this isn't too technical. If you want help & are serious, you can write me. Chris
A young friend of mine (22) used the WeightWatchers program online. She has lost over 100 pounds. I would also recommend groups like Weight Watchers or TOPS, if you have them in your area. The group support is very helpful. You may feel awkward and shy at first at the group, but I am sure you will be made to feel welcome and the people will help you celebrate your success. Good luck.
I used to use the 'soup diet'. It doesn't have long lasting results, but the soup is actually very good! I used a large can of V8 type spicy juice, large can of chopped tomatoes, 2 large chopped onions, 2 large chopped bell peppers, 9 large celery stalks sliced, one med/lg head cabbage sliced thin. Place all in a large stock pot. Pour in 3 large boxes of fat free chicken broth, season with salt and pepper, and simmer till done. Since it has no meat, it is very low fat, and you can eat it as often as you like.
If you cut way down on food, your body will think you are trying to starve yourself and it will hold onto the fat. The secret is to eat often, maybe 6 times a day, but eat very low calorie foods like large tossed salads (veggies only) with just a couple of tablespoons of diet salad dressing.
There is low calorie bread out there, like 35 or 40 calories per slice. That is 1/2 the number of calories in a regular slice of bread, so you can eat 2 slices of low calorie bread for the price of one slice of regular. Use very low fat lunch meat or "egg sandwiches". For those, use a product like Egg Beaters, spray the skillet with Pam, pour in 1/4 cup of Egg Beaters, cook on one side, then flip.
Someone gave you a diet soup recipe. There are many versions of "Diet Soup" on the web, so you can look at several of them to pick out the ingredients you like best from each recipe. And if you use the right ingredients (the ones with less carbohydrates) you can eat a lot of it to help fill you up between meals.
It's all in what you put in your mouth drink lots of water, fill up on vegetables and fruit. Stop the breads and soda (if you drink soda)and start to walk even in your yard or go to the mall. Just keep walking you get faster and walk more each time you walk and you'll be sure to lose weigh, and stop the junk food! Good luck.
So much great advice! I can add a bit too. I am maintaining a 35 lb weight loss for 12 years. Look in the mirror everyday at your wonderful healthy body and be thankful all the parts are there and they work. Smile at yourself and say "I love you girl just the way you are." I find I can't change by hating myself.
Repeat your new mantra " Everyday in every way I'm getting better and better." Do something for someone else who needs help and get out of your own problems. Join a club at school that you are interested in. Like- minded kids will not judge you. (And remember- "What other people think of me is none of my business".)
Check out the Oprah website regularly for lots of good info and inspiration. Change one thing at a time so you are not overwhelmed. Join Overeaters Anonymous or Alanon if you feel there is addiction or other issues in your family. The family can give us lots of baggage to deal with. We can hide in the food. The sooner you start to understand where you come from the better for you long term.
And if there are addictive aspects to your eating (and maybe other behaviours) 12 step programs help. There will be people there who understand you and you will identify with them. Great support. I belong to OA and it really has helped give me life strategies!
Finally--If you slip up with food - it's a slip not a huge failure. You are not a failure! Just go back to eat healthfully because you are worth it!
Best of luck. We all are cheering you on!!
Have you ever heard about the Biggest Loser? or Jillian Michaels? Jillian Michaels has a book out that is mastering your metabolism. My mom bought it and it is so good! I am pretty young myself and I was over weight so I can totally understand what you're going through. One thing I can say is: Be proud of who you are no matter how you look! That was the best advice I ever got. Jillian Michaels has weight loss DVD's out and they are really good. You don't really need a gym or anything because she uses your own weight against you.
Here are some links you should look at:
1. www.collagevideo.com/
2. www.jillianmichaels.com/
3. This is the best one: www.jillianmichaels.com/
If you look at the side where it says, "Free weights loss plan", fill that out and you're on your way!
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