Am I on the right track?

      Hello all :).  I'm new here, so I hope I am doing this correctly :/.  But, I am currently 17 years old, 150 lbs, and 6 ft 2 in.  Yes, I know, that is rather thin for my height.  However, I used to weigh 220 pounds when I was 15 and a half or so.  But, I lost a bunch of weight through changing my eating habits and (at that time) light exercise :).  However, its not my success story I wish to share :).  Currently, I exercise whenever I can, usually around 5 times a week.  My routine is to lift weights and ride the exercise bike for 20 minutes on one day; then the next day I ride the bike for 30 minutes (on this hill incline feature on the bike).  I try and eat as well as I can.  I always eat breakfast, which usually consists of cereal and juice.  For lunch I have whatever my school offers, and often I withhold from the fries and desserts.  So my lunch consists of a main course (usually a meat with a bread of some type), salad, milk, and fruit.  For dinner, this is where it varies greatly.  Some nights my family and I will have dinner salads, and other nights we will have frozen pizza.  Now, I consider my daily eating habits for lunch and breakfast enough leeway for whatever dinner brings.  I get about 7 hours of sleep a night and do not drink or smoke at all.  That is essentially the rundown of my health life (I hope that is needed :/). 

        Am I on the right track to maintaining a solid weight?  Some people say I am underweight, and can afford to put some more weight on.  However, being a past survivor of obesity, I am fearful to put unnecessary weight on, and fall back into old habits.  Others tell me that I should have more protein in my life.  And, in all honesty, I am at that point where I am trying to find that right balance and such.  The topic title says it all :).  Am I on the right track?  And what exactly can I do if I am not?

    One more thing :).  When it comes to the sweets department...how much is too much or too little (if there is such a thing)?  As I previously mentioned, sweets are not a major part of my diet; as I usually only have one sweet a day at most (after dinner, maybe for lunch).  However, when I do have that sweet, I always feel guilty.  I know that I shouldn't because of my exercise and eating patterns.  But, I can't help but feeling guilty whenever I eat that cookie.  I look around and see people around me eat sweets like they're grapes (pretty much they eat a lot of them).  So, I guess my justification is the old "One can't hurt".  Am I right to feel this guilt?  Should I lighten up a little bit?  Thanks for the comments everyone :).  And sorry for the long post :/.

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I am 36 now and struggling to lose some weight (been at same weight for a while now), so I am just as frustrated.  At your age, you lost a lot of weight and should be very proud.  I am not a medical expert (just a teacher and coach of kids your age) so keep eating healthy!  Your body is still growing and maturing, especially on the inside.  You seem to know a lot about good food to eat, etc. and I wouldn't worry so much about what you eat all the time.  Some candy, chips, etc.  once in a while won't kill your efforts!  And, you say your're exercising so that burns off the calories!

When I was a teenager I ate anything and everything...because it felt good.  I knew nothing about the good things to eat.  But I stayed active and I gained weight but not a ton of weight.  A few extra pounds for you won't be bad.

I don't know if I am answering your question well but basically, enjoy your time at school, study hard, have fun and let your body mature physically.  You need some fats in your diet so go ahead and eat the good ones.  Don't worry!! 

Congrats on your weight loss!

I think you are on the right track. It sounds like you have mastered "how to eat when you're not the one in control of the cooking" as well as "how to eat outside the home." Great!! Your diet seems fine, and your weight is evidence of that. Yes, you have room for a cookie, and honestly, it wouldn't be a "treat" if you didn't harbor SOME guilt! That's the way I look at it, anyway! It's worse if you stop feeling guilt and start popping cookies without any conscience at all, right?

At this stage, I would recommend that you start concentrating more on the exercise/fitness portion of the equation, and less on the diet.

In the coming years, the challenge is going to be how to remain active as you move into the adult years and start working. Lots of adults end up highly inactive by nature of their profession: driving too far in a car each day to get to work, then sitting at a desk job all day long, coming home too tired to want to cook a proper meal or to do any purposeful exercise.

You can choose a profession that encourages more activity than that (for example something that requires you to stand on your feet all day), or a job that makes it easier to build in activity to your day. For example, simply choosing to work closer to home - eliminating a long commute - can go a long, long way to give back extra hours for hitting the gym, or to enable you to bike to work (which is what my DH - fit as a fiddle and he can eat like a horse! - does).

It also helps a lot if you can find an activity that you love and will do just for fun - not simply for weight control. For example, dancing, team sports, skiing, biking, training for a marathon. Then surround yourself with like-minded people who share your love of the same activity. This will build fitness into the very fabric of your life. It'll become a social endeavor, not just a means to an end.

Finally, once you reach adulthood (another year maybe three), pick a comfortable weight RANGE for you. I say RANGE because daily and monthly and even seasonally fluctuations are quite normal, so don't pick a single number, pick a range within 5-10 lbs so you don't make yourself crazy. Then make a commitment if your weight goes 5 lbs above this range, you won't let it get any farther. You'll study your habits and tweak them. That doesn't even mean you need to resort back to calorie-counting; When you tweak, always work on the activity/fitness level of the equation first, before diet. That should help you maintain your weight for a lifetime.

Here's my advice regarding sweets. Instead of buying heavily processed garbage, go for the more expensive homemade stuff. For example, very dark chocolate if you like it. Ice cream from a non-chain establishment that makes it themselves. Maybe an occasional pastry or cookie from a mom and pop bakery. What I do is eat sweets once, maybe twice a week, and when I do, I try to make sure it's not more than 10% of my total calories for that day, and I only eat them on days I exercised.

jen, that was amazing. ;o

Cool, thanks a bunch guys :).  I just returned from a doctor's checkup thing, and he did say that I am just above the borderline of being medically underweight.  He said I should increase my daily intake of calories by about 300 or so while continuing to exercise.  Haha, and that's very true, how can something not be a "treat" if it has guilt attached to it? :P  I will always continue exercising, and often plan my days activities around it.  Not that I'm an exercise "freak", but it helps relieve stress, makes me feel better, and isn't too bad for my health either.  Thanks again :).  It real does feel great to know that I have somewhere to go for these kinds of things :).