New Beggining+Advice on weight loss

At age 16 I was 98 pounds now Im 18 and Im 120 pounds and 5"4.  As you can see I gained an uncontrollable amount of weight in a short period of time even though I excercised and ate at most 2,200 calories a day. 

Questions:

1.  Usually I eat 2,000 calories but yesterday I decided to go on a change of diet and consumed 1,600 calories and I lost 2 pounds Is this even possible?  Now im 118 pounds.

2. I excercise 40 minutes everyday by either jogging/Fast walk/Running or on cardio machines, And from now Im consuming 1,500 calories until I reach at least 115 pounds--Is this healthy or will I lose all this weight only to gain itback easily?

Between 16 and 18, even if you don't grow taller, your body can do a lot of maturing, filling out: You can't expect to remain 98 lbs. That is not a healthy weight at your height for an adult woman. And 120 lbs. at 5' 4" is still pretty slender for all that. How much do you intend to lose?

Your initial 2 lb. loss is likely water weight. The scale will probably go back up again, so don't worry when it does.

 

I'm not sure I'd be hte best person to answer, but i'll do the best i can.

No, its not possible to lose 2 pounds overnight. What you saw was probably either a loss in water weight, or the difference in the amount of food you ate. Thats why some people choose to weigh themselves weekly, or, if they weigh daily, only take their weight on one chosen day per week seriously. This way, the small daily fluctuations don't phase them as much, and they see an overall change rather than daily changes in water weight / food weight, etc.

I'm doing basically the same routine you are- doing cardio 30-60 minutes every day or two, and consuming 1400 calories, and so far i've lost about 3-4 pounds, so it seems like a legit diet to me. The problem about decreasing your intake is that once you start maintaining your weight (Rather than trying to lose it) you have to make SURE you're eating only what you're burning, and not trying to go back to your eating habits from before. The reason you gain back weight easily is becasue your body gets used to you eating less, and all of a sudden if you start eating a lot more, but burning the same amount as before, the extra calories start adding up.  So yeah. the most important thing after reaching your goal is maintainance, and keeping a healthy lifestyle.

 

Hopefully i helped! sorry if my sentences are kind of wack.. i just got back from the gym and i'm SLIGhtly lightheaded =d

No I definitely don't want to go down to 98 pounds my goal is at least 115 pounds.  But honestly I don't feel comfortable at 120 thats why I want to lose to 115 so I can be healthy and comfortable yet not too light.  My goal is also the army next year so there is no possible way they will recruit a girl who is underweight.

Thanks for the advice , I wasn't sure If I was doing this correctly.

Ah, that's good to know.

I can't really offer much advice on how much to eat. I'm not up to speed on how much someone who is 18 and your height and weight should be eating, and though my stats are close to yours—5' 3 1/2" and 109—I am older, work out more, and have a ton of muscle, so the amount I eat doesn't help you.

That being said, though, it does sound to me like you are being very smart in how you are going about this. You aren't cutting your calories excessively. And I believe that at 18 you should be able to lose on 1,500 calories and exercise. You still need to eat quite a bit to maintain at that age. In fact, someone may say you need to up your calories a little, but I think you're not too far off if at all.

120 pounds at 5'4" is very thin.  As we've told you countless times, you don't need to lose weight.

16 year olds are SUPPOSED to grow.  It's called becoming an adult, or growing up. 

She is 18 NOW... and no 120 at 5'4" is NOT that thin.  I am 47 and weigh 119 and 5'3" - I am not happy with that and am dieting to get back to 112.  AT 18 I was 95 pounds myself.... which is skinny.

But - why on earth would you not want to be your thinnest at 18?  It is much harder to drop as you get older and also your setting yourself up for fattness later in life. 

Petite - 115 is great - I wish you luck!

Yes 120 pounds for 5"4 is actually very curvy-At least for me.  I wish I can be 95 pounds the problem is it's really hard for me to maintain on that weight I can eat maybe only 600 calories and I feel really weak at 98 pounds so 95 can't be that much better.  Anyways I can't be lower than 50 KG---110 Pounds thats the minimum weight  that you can be in order to enter a fighting division in the army at least the Israeli army, Plus I have to be strong for the army especially where I want to be--Tank/Artillery...and I have 1 year for preperation, So 115 is perfect if not then 110.  And I can't hold on to any emotions right now with food because

 1. Waste of precious thinking time

2. In the Israeli army they'll kick me right back home if I even show signs of an eating disorder they are not kind.

So Basically I have to toughen up and just lose these 3 pounds and the total minimum is 111 pounds.  Thanks for advice again.

Your bmi is 20.6, the low end of healthy. Rather than losing, you should be focusing on strengthening and tightening up. That will serve you best in the army, plus being too close to too thin puts you in danger of not having enough weight to sustain yourself if you get ill or injured or just have a hard time with training. If you want to do what you say you want to do, why would you want to be border-line for being underweight?

Getting fit will make you look thinner without having to lose any weight. You'll have lots of energy and a higher maintenance burn, too.

That's my 2 cents worth, anyway.

Trust me if that is the low end of the BMI it does not look so on me.  And 115 looks good and I feel comfortable with at my height.  I don't want to be unhealthy but I also don't want to be too heavy Im scared the army won't accept me If Iam.  I'll do more strength training thogh but does running on concrete (No treadmill) also build muscle?

Running, no matter how much you do, wouldn't help you build too much muscle at your weight.  There's just not enough to support that it would help you in that regard.  It helps for bigger people (such as myself) a little more since there's more upper body for your legs to support, but still not enough to gain any large amount.

You'll definitely have to do full-body strength training.  You can focus on a limited number of exercises while you're getting into it - focus on your arms, legs, chest, back, and stomach.  You can have some shoulder exercises in there too if you want.  When you pick your weight, make sure you can do at least 3 sets of 8-10 reps and that you are, if not working hard for the last couple reps, at least feel like you can't do any more or could only do a couple more.  You'll want to build up to bigger weights and more reps/sets, but you want to give yourself at least a couple weeks to get used to it again.  After the initial month or so, you can add other exercises to focus on more parts of your body, or different muscle groups, since you will be used to the strength training and it will be easier to add more to your workout.

This might actually be one of the reasons you aren't happy with being 120.  As you gain muscle you may gain some weight, as your muscles grow but the rest of your body stays relatively the same.  At that point you can start working to maintain your muscle mass while losing some excess fat you have, and you will essentially have a better looking body at the same weight you started because of the added muscle.

If you are still set on losing a few pounds after you have had a few months of strength training, you can do that, but for now you should definitely focus on gaining muscle rather than losing anything.