Posts by gi-jane

1940 for 'sedentary' but  the definition of 'sedentary' is someone that doesn't get out of bed all day.   http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/bodycomp/bmiz2.html  This site can give you a reasonable estimate of your energy needs if you're realistic about how active you are.

A fast metabolism doesn't mean 'limitless energy requirement'.  So if you were eating 5000 cals a day and gaining then you were very simply eating too much.  If you're taking in 1600 cals you lose weight.  Logically therefore, your energy needs are somewhere between the two.   Aim for about 2500-3000 and I don't think you'd be far off.

BTW..... 5'3 seems pretty short.  How tall are your parents? 

There's really no 'right way to eat' and, as long as you get regular meals, you can split things up however you see fit.  Whether what you eat keeps you full or not rather depends on the foods you choose.   The most filling foods contain plenty of fibre and you'll find protein and fat also make a meal more satisfying.  So, rather than 2 x 200 cal 'snacks', if you created one light 400 cal meal including plenty of vegetables, fibrous carbohydrates, lean proteins and a little fat.... a pretty traditional combination.... you'd feel quite satisfied, I'm sure.

If you don't need to lose weight and you want to tone up and strengthen then you don't run a calorie deficit.   That's your basic problem.  With your current inadequate diet, and because you don't have any spare body-fat,  your body will cannibalise lean tissue (muscle) to make up the shortfall in energy  This defeats the whole object and will make you ill in the long-run.

Work out, using the CC calculator, how many calories you need to maintain your current weight with a 'very active' activity level and take it from there.  You're going to find that your total energy needs are in the 2600-3000 region.  So the reason you're eating half boxes of muesli etc,. is that 1500 calories is leaving you horribly short of energy and nutrition.... you're just plain hungry in other words.

Take note.... anyone that puts nasty tags in facebook is not a friend but a BULLY.  You should not tolerate people like that in your life same as you shouldn't tolerate the nasty comments made by your 'massive giant' friend or your mother.  They are dragging you down .... don't accept it.

At 5'5" (and I really don't care about your ethnicity) 65kgs is a healthy weight.  You are not 'huge'.  You should not be 'ashamed' of yourself.   You do not have 'big guts'.  You are not a 'balloon'.   As if it's not bad enough that you seem to be surrounded by people that think it's OK to be rude and nasty about your appearance.... you're adding to it by agreeing with them and inventing your own terms of abuse.  Why would you do that to yourself?

Dieting is not going to solve anything if you have no self-respect.  So start standing up for yourself a bit more and let the 'poor me' thing go.   Tell some of these so-called 'friends' to piss off and next time your mother says 'don't you ever look in the mirror' have a nice sharp reply ready to hand.  End of the day, if we don't like ourselves, what chance have we got?

CC does not support people who have ambitions to be clincally underweight.

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Yes, you're doing it the wrong way.  With a BMI of 22 you're actually a perfectly healthy weight.  And therefore you'll get the best results not by drastically cutting calories but by increasing the amount of activity you get and coupling that with a slightly lighter but much healthier diet.  It will also make it less likely that you slip back into old behaviour patterns.... always a danger when people like yourself try to lose weight.

From now on aim to get about half an hour a day of some kind of physcial exercise.  Walking is as good as anything.   And, if you're going to count calories, set your intake at about 1500-1600... no lower.   Finally, make sure you eat regularly and base your meals around vegetables and other wholesome foods.

But do stop starving yourself.... that acheives nothing.

To make sandwiches more interesting try using different types of bread.... rolls, pittas, wraps etc.... and getting more creative with the fillings.

Otherwise there's a lot you can do with home-made pasta, bean or rice salads.  If you have access to a microwave you could parcel up a spare portion of whatever you have for supper and heat it up.  Or you could invest in a wide-necked thermos and take along some chunky soups for a change.

Enter your stats into the CC calculator and then add your exercise via the exercise log.  On your home page you'll find your total burn is now in the blue box.... it's the smaller of the two numbers ('total estimate').

Maintain a difference of about 700 between this number and the amount you eat.  i.e. if you use up 2400 cals a day, make sure you eat 1700.  This assumes you need to lose weight, of course.

Original Post by hphphp62442:

I just hate eating in the cafeteria here, because there are no nutritional labels on anything.

You need to learn to judge meals by a combination of food type and portion-size.   A 'portion' of carbohydrate is a remarkably consistent calorie-count for example whether it's pasta, rice, noodles or mashed potato.  Augment your meal with lots of dressing/sauces.... a bread roll with butter.... a big glass of OJ or milk.... you can really go to town in a cafeteria.   2500 is only a minimum intake, of course.

Regarding hypermetabolism... cross that bridge when/if you come to it.  It may never happen

There are no unhealthy foods... only unhealthy diets.  If you can get over your problem with the cafeteria I think you'd feel and look a lot better.

If you really want to know what's going on try putting your brother's stats into this chart and reading off the numbers for a 'very active' person his age and size.... http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/bodycomp/bmiz2.html 

You'll find that 4000 cals a day really wouldn't be that unusual for a very active kid who's body is still developing.   Doesn't actually matter if it's 'junk'... energy is energy at the end of the day.  However, at some stage (mid-late twenties) he'll find that a junky diet, a slight slow-down in the metabolism from 'teen' to 'adult' and a more sedentary lifestyle can very easily turn into rolls of unwanted flab and a cholesterol problem.

He's not 'exempt' he's just young.

Never mind your 'stats'.... This is not really about body-shape or size or weight.  This is about self-esteem & confidence - both of which you are lacking for some reason.  Being a healthy weight is obviously a sensible goal but you're absolutely right to think that being slimmer in no way means that you instantly acquire self-esteem or confidence.  That's something you have to work on independently.  And 'attractiveness' has nothing to do with size or shape either.  Have you ever heard the expression 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder?'.....  well it's true.   If it were not true, only women of a particular size would be given a license to breed.  LOL!

Attractiveness is very much tied up with confidence and self-esteem.  The relaxed, smiling girl  - fat or thin - who has something intelligent to say for herself, is interested in others and who is pleasant to talk to is the one that gets the boyfriend.  The miserable, boring one, sat in the corner too terrified to utter a sound is the 'wallflower' everyone walks past - whether she's fat or thin, nice-looking or not

So at the same time as working on being a healthy weight you can work on your self-esteem... Some tips.

• Become your own biggest fan.  And stop talking yourself down. Find at least three things you really like about yourself and remind yourself of them daily.   Ask friends and family what they like about you if you can't think of anything. 
• Widen your social circle.  Get involved with more people.  The more people you associate with, the more confident you'll become and the more likely you'll find a soul-mate.
• Challenge yourself... face your fears.  Put yourself into situations that may make you uncomfortable and see how you cope.  The more you do it, the les daunting everything else will become
• Learn new skills....  Interesting people are more attractive than boring people.  Learning gives you a sense of achievement and purpose and as you learn you'll build your confidence.
• Put yourself first..... People who lack confidence tend to assume everyone else's needs are more important than their own.  Be more selfish.
• 'Pretty is as pretty does'.... act pretty.  Always be well-groomed and wear flattering clothes.  If you look good you'll feel good.

Good luck

You're talking about children..... Children will take the mickey out of anyone or anything that's different for the sole reason that it's different.   Red hair, glasses, fat, thin, not wearing the right trainers, not being good at sport.  All kids do it. If you've never made fun of anyone for being different, I'd be very surprised. 

The more you react (and that includes patient explanations, I'm afraid), the more they'll make fun of you.  That's how it works in the playground and amongst immature groups of people elsewhere.  It'll die down if you ignore them, stop reacting and when they get bored...

In the meantime, revise who you consider 'friends'....

Original Post by hphphp62442:

I'm sorry, I know this is stupid.  Any help or slaps in the face for me?

Slap in the face? ... You're talking about Thanksgiving so why show up looking like something left over from Hallowe'en and put everyone off their pumpkin pie?   What would your family rather see?  Painfully thin, obviously still horribly sick and not getting any better you?  Or someone that looks more like they're on the road to recovery?  I'm guessing the latter.....  

The problem here is that you're a young girl and you're not overweight.  Being 14 means that your body is in a state of flux between being a 'girl' and progressing to being a 'woman'.  If you're not actually overweight, it's a really bad idea to calorie-restrict during puberty because, if you're not careful, you can upset the way your body develops. 

This is what your family is concerned about. That and the ever-present spectre of eating disorders.  You say on your profile that you tried 'eating nothing for a day and overeating the next'... so you've already demonstrated that you're a candidate for disordered eating.   They see a perfectly healthy girl turning down ordinary foods like a little ice-cream or a few chips and the alarm bells will of course start to ring. 

You don't have to calorie-count.  Instead try the following.

• Get more active.   Aim to be physically active for at least an hour every day.  This will improve your shape and will keep your weight down.
• Eat better rather than less.  Rather than restricting calories and refusing to eat perfectly good things like ice-cream, aim to get a diet where 80% of the food is 'good & nutritious' (vegetables, meat, fish, grains, dairy products) and 20% is set aside for 'fun foods' like chips.  That would be a much healthier way of eating, you could enjoy days out like any other normal teen and your family would start to relax.

It's true.   There's some kind of weird taboo I've noticed that people have about the idea of '2000 calories'.    As if it's some massive amount of food.  LOL!  When, in fact, 2000 is not a heavy diet in the slightest and would keep the average adult woman (over 21) who is lightly active at the same weight and well-nourished.  Because you're just under 21 and because you're a lot more than lightly active then 2300-2800 absolutely isn't unreasonable.