I need help.

Ok let me start off with some information about myself .Im 16 about 5'6 and weigh about 108 pounds.

My daily workouts consist of 20-25 min  of jogging, 10 min. abs + chest.

I need to find out how many calories a day i should be intaking at my age and based on my workouts.

[Can someone please make me a meal plan for one day.]

Thank you,

-Dekkos

http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/bodycomp/bmiz2.html

This site is specially aimed at people under 21 because their bodies are still developing and they generally need more energy than older people.  If you enter your stats and read off the number for 'moderate' activity... (you move around during the day even when you're not jogging etc., presumably)... then that's the amount you need.  2360 cals as your baseline.

You're not technically underweight for someone your age at the moment but you will be if your diet doesn't improve.  And if your weight was still the same in a year's time or two years' time, you'd probably find you had health problems.  So plan for growth....  it's normal and natural.

Glad you've decided to talk to your mother and get a doctor's appointment. 

dekkos:  5' 6" and 108 pounds seems pretty slim to me.  It's nice that you are doing around 30 minutes of exercise a day.  At the top of page are a bunch of Tabs such as Foods, Exercise, Tools, and Advice.  Click on Tools and you can find out how to determine your Ideal Weight by clicking on the BMI Tool.  There are many helpful things on this site, but you have to be willing to play around and click on the different Tabs up above and take time to learn the smart things about diet and calories. 

According to what I typed in on this site for your BMI you are at 17.4 and at a healthy weight for your age, height, and weight. 

Basically, the average healthy teenage boy should get around 2500-3000 calories a day. 

The average healthy teenage girl should get around 2200 calories a day.

Also, teenagers should get 30 minutes of vigorous exercise around 5 times a week.

-----------------------------------

My suggestion, and I am no expert although I have been researching/studying this stuff for the last 4 or 5 months is this:

Start the day off with a good healthy breakfast.  Make sure you have good protein in your breakfast.  Drink water over any kind of soda--diet or sugar.  Drink an 8 oz glass of 100% juice.  If you like grapefruit, eat 1/2 of a grapefruit with most breakfasts, or drink 8 oz. of grapefruit juice.  Other ideas: make a fruit smoothie such as having fresh peaches, frozen unsweetend berries (adds the cold to the smoothie), honey, orange juice, yogurt--play around with making smoothies you like--just always add the real juices and fruits.  Try a little maple syrup or peanut butter and bananas, etc.

Make a fresh fruit salad for breakfast such as fresh strawberries, bananas, pineapple, etc.  Sprinkle some walnuts or almonds on it.  Make oatmeal or steel cut oats and add fresh fruits or a bit of honey or maple syrup.  Eat a whole grain bagel or bread with cream cheese with fruit, etc.  Find a healthy breakfast cereal and use skim milk and fresh fruit with it.  In other words, having good fiber in your first meal is important.

For lunch:  Have a sandwich with whole grain bread--lean turkey or ham, lettuce, tomatoes, and low fat cheese.  Make a shredded lettuce or cabbage salad with white turkey or chicken meat, lowfat dressing, sunflower seeds, etc.  Use whole-wheat pita bread or whole wheat crackers and a few slices of cheese.  Have some carrot sticks or baby carrots. Take a soft tortilla wrap and add white turkey or chicken meat, shredded carrots, and a bit of shredded cheese.  Try using tuna with your wrap and add things like the shredded cheese, lettuce, shredded carrots, etc.  It is always good to have an apple, peach, pear, or grapes with your noon lunch. 

For supper:  If you want a really healthy, tasty pasta, try any of the Barilla+ pastas.  You can add 93% or 95% lean ground beef to the sauce, or use turkey or chicken in place of the beef.  You can make a good veggie pasta using tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, etc.  Grill salmon or broil it.  Salmon is a wondeful choice, particularly wild salmon.  Always include some veggies with your supper.  Corn and potatoes, such as red potatoes can be good choices.  Instead of smearing sour cream or butter on your potato, use salsa or lowsodium chili or diced tomatoes.  If your diced tomatoes, which you can find low-calorie and low-sodium, need a bit of flavor--add a couple spoonfuls of mild or medium salsa.    I strongly recommend you consider adding beans (soaked from dry are better than canned, usually, but canned works, too--but some are high in sodium) to your diet on occasion.  You can add some barbeque sauce to the beans and things like diced turkey or chicken can also be added.  Make a soup using black or red beans, onions, bell peppers, diced turkey, low-sodium tomato juice, and a bit of garlic and chili powder. 

I realize that you may  not have time to make these kind of meals, but the important thing is, in my opinion, to include a lot of fruits and vegetables.  You also can include fish and lean meats.  Nuts (including peanut butter) in moderation and beans are also beneficial.  Most importantly, ALWAYS START THE DAY OFF WITH A GOOD, NUTRITIOUS BREAKFAST. Drink more water and fruit juice than you do soda and limit your sodas to just a few a week if you feel you need to drink them.

There are many members on this site  who can give you a ton of good meal choices.  I think it is important for you to find out how many calories you should be taking in. 

Thank you Jane and Pilgrim.

I'm starting to understand that In order to be healthy i need to eat more. but more of healthy things and not junk, more nutricious food.

I'm going to work my way up there. thank you guys so much =].

Sincerely,

   Dekkos

Original Post by pilgrimdude:

 

According to what I typed in on this site for your BMI you are at 17.4 and at a healthy weight for your age, height, and weight. 

A BMI of 17.4 is not a healthy weight. Dekkos, you shouldn't be exercising until you have weight-restored to a BMI of at least 20 (this is the minimum recommended BMI for people who have a history of eating disorders). Exercising while underweight does a lot more harm than good. It stresses your heart, muscles and joints, and slows down your weight gain. You do need to gain weight to be healthy. Once you are a healthy weight, you can slowly re-incorporate exercise into your life, being careful to up your calories when you do so.

Until then, hold off.

Original Post by merylwhite1:

Original Post by pilgrimdude:

 

According to what I typed in on this site for your BMI you are at 17.4 and at a healthy weight for your age, height, and weight. 

A BMI of 17.4 is not a healthy weight. Dekkos, you shouldn't be exercising until you have weight-restored to a BMI of at least 20 (this is the minimum recommended BMI for people who have a history of eating disorders). Exercising while underweight does a lot more harm than good. It stresses your heart, muscles and joints, and slows down your weight gain. You do need to gain weight to be healthy. Once you are a healthy weight, you can slowly re-incorporate exercise into your life, being careful to up your calories when you do so.

Until then, hold off.

The BMI scale doesn't match completely for teenagers, since they are still developing. As gi-jane mentioned, based on charts for 16-year-olds dekkos' weight is acceptable, but very slim. 

Dekkos:  Since I went to 3 different sites geared toward teenagers and typed in the statistics you provided, I made my comments based upon what the sites stated.  I did not factor in eating disorder information.  It is difficult to know if your slim built is genetics or artificially engineered through dieting.  In any case, do your own research and let your parents know and help you in the research by using search engines and carefully weighing the information.  There are dozens of sites like Calorie Count that will help.  There are also many sites geared just for teenagers. 

"A BMI of 17.4 is not a healthy weight."  This is going to vary from person to person.  It can be a healthy weight depending on several factors.

"based on charts for 16-year-olds dekkos' weight is acceptable, but very slim."  Which is what my point was. 

As you can tell, different people will have different opinions.  The things we all agree upon are that you need to include your parents in helping set up a good diet/exercise plan, you need to do careful research, and you need to make sure you DO get the right about of healthy food calories. 

Dekkos:  You might check this site out and make your meal plan based to a large degree on this list of the world's healthiest foods.  Again, one must know what foods he/she might be allergic to (such as dairy, whole grain, nuts, etc), and make the choices with that in mind.

http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php