Does this sound healthy?

So, I’m a 16 year old girl, 190 lbs, and completely clueless. I haven’t been taught much about food besides that fruits and vegetables are good and candy is bad- and honestly, I haven’t done all that much research myself. I'd like to know if I’m doing it right to start with.

My daily intake is getting lower- it’s been a week since I joined and I’ve messed up several times already (portion control is very new to me), but the good days are about 1300. I’m eating mostly early in the day, and working on getting more protein, less fat, and less sodium.

I lead a sedentary lifestyle due mostly to several mental conditions that prevent me from leaving my house much, but I’ve been using my elliptical forty minutes a day at a moderate pace, and I add in some other exercise every other day.

Does this sound like a good start? Is there anything I should change?

Cut out all grain products and sugars.

Eat the whole egg.

Don't take the skin off chicken.

Eat green veggies.

Eat berries rather than fruits like apples or peaches.

Drink whole milk (a little goes a long way)

Try to avoid highly manufactured foods.  Cheese and milk are fine.

Don't be afraid of fat.  [Without grain products in one's system, fat gets used as fuel more readily and your body absolutely needs a great deal of fat in order to function. The more fat you take in the less your body will think it needs to horde and it will begin to release body fat for fuel.  This is related to how insulin works in the body.]

Eat when hungry; stop when full.  Dont worry very much about portion control but if you know you have been serving yourself way too much, then it's probably a good idea to serve yourself a lot less than you think might satisfy hunger and then eat a little more if not full.  This will teach you more than trying to eyeball portion sizes -- everyone is different after all.

Get nutritional information from more than one source.  I highly recommend starting with the following two books:

Dr Steven Gundry's New Diet Evolution

Gary Taubes's Good Calories, Bad Calories

Less cardio; more weight training.  I recommend The New Rules of Lifting for Women or the Slow Burn method.  There are plenty of great exercises you can do with only your body weight so don't worry about using weights if you cant leave the house.

1300 calories is far too low for you. You need at LEAST 1800 calories, probably more. You want a deficit of about 500 calories a day. & the rules for adults don't apply to you since you're still a kid & growing.
I'm waiting for one of the mods to get in here because they can articulate this better than I can.
I also disagree with a lot of what marneedear said.

If someone else doesn't come in here & clear this up & let you know what you should be doing, I'll do it. I'm just supposed to be writing a paper right now so I'm trying to not get too far off task haha.

I don't agree with cutting out all grain products. There is nothing wrong with whole grain. Just not processed, high fructose corn syrup based white bread.

I also don't know why you should eat berries opposed to apples or peaches. I think both apples and peaches are great foods to eat.

ESPECIALLY because you're growing, those two at least don't make sense. Chicken skin, whole milk, and whole eggs are good advice for you, though. Very complex healthy foods there.

You definitely need to be eating more than 1300 calories because you're still growing. I think it's at least between 1600 and 1800. But starcrossdlovex is right in that you should aim for 500 a day deficit between what you're eating and what you're burning.

However, it sounds like a good start. Try to get those cals up and try toning (with exercise.) I know it might be hard for you to leave your house, but I think doing crunches and maybe getting a few light freeweights (or making your own out of things around your house like water bottles filled with water/sand) and finding some exercises online. I think exercise will be your best bet to lose weight becuase you really shouldn't be cutting your calories so dramatically at your age.

Okay, this thead seems to have been overlooked & I have the time now, so here goes.

You need to calculate your BMR- or your basal metabolic rate. this is the amount of calories you burn all day just by being alive. Here's a calculator to use. I'm not sure of your height, so i can't do it for you. So you get that number, let's say it ends up being 1900 calories. this is the number of calories you neverever want to go below. This is what your body needs to function.
Then you scroll down to "Lightly active" & see what that BMR is, let's say it's 2300. So all day you're burning 2500 calories.
You can safely lose 1 pound a week, or 3500 calories, so you want to have a 500 calorie defecit every day. 500 x 7 days = 3500 calories.

So, if you're burning 2500 calories every day, you would have a 500 calorie defecit if you ate 2000 calories.
So now you have your caloric allowance, but you still want to use those calories in the right way. First off, make sure you're getting around 20% of those calories from fat. Fat is not an enemy. healthy sources of fat are peanut butter, nuts, and olive oil. It's essential. You also want your protein to be at least 20%, & try to get it from lean sources (ie. skinless chicken breast, salmon, etc). With your carbs, try to make them whole grains & cut down on processed carbs (ie. potato chips). & I'd advise you to make vegetables "free." It's hard to have too many veggies =] haha

But above all, just remember that you're only 16. You're allowed to go out with your friends for pizza & order chinese food with them. But maybe aim for only one slice of pizza, or get the sauce on the side of the chinese food. Enjoy your youth & don't become obsessed with food and calories.

I also advise you to disregard marneedear's advice. No offense, but I don't see the logic behind most of it.

I tried to cover almost everything, so hopefully I didn't leave too much out. Good luck & kudos for taking the time to ask for help & realize you're not as informed as you'd like to be =]

Great post starcrossdlovex =]

Other than that my advice would be tons and tons of water. I personally didn't like water to start out with so I went to walmart and got a cute little pink jug and started carrying it around with me everywhere. When I felt like I needed a snack or if everybody else was having a big bowl of ice cream, I'd go to my water. That bottle is like my bff, haha. 

If you're like me and not a big fan of water, it helps to drink it in an interesting way like from a jug or a straw. Sometimes I freeze the jug and drink the water slowly as it melts. You get creative. =]

Good luck!