How Do I Get Started?

Hi guys

My name is Catarina and I'm 15 years old, weighing in at a mind boggling 200-ish pounds. (In all honesty I haven't weighed myself recently) I'm 5'4", so you can tell by these statistics that I'm not a very healthy-looking person.

I want to lose weight for my sweet sixteenth, which is in just over a year. I'd like to lose 80 pounds in this amount of time, but I don't think I can do it. I tried to get my mom to support me on this journey, but she's partially the reason why I'm so big, and she also thinks I look "fine," but I'm not. My Dad lives out of province, so I can't turn to him and I'm an only child, so I have no siblings to support me.

I'm on this journey alone, and I don't know how to start.

Where do I begin? What should I do first? Any helpful tips from you lovely people?

Please and thank you

Hey cata!  First off let me congratulate you for wanting to get healthier :)  It's always great to see young girls wanting to do things right and lose extra weight for good :)

Calorie Count was not exactly made for young teens like yourself because the tools on this site are suitable for adults, but if you look at the forums, there's one thats for young calorie counters that might help you a lot when it comes to healthy tips to lose weight, etc.

I know of a calculator that works best for growing teens like yourself. It's really important that you feed your body properly even when starting to lose weight, so that you can avoid any future health complications.

here's a calculator you can use to estimate the amount of calories you need to maintain your weight:

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

I took the time to enter your stats (64 inches tall, 200 lbs, 15 yrs old) and what came up was this:

Sedentary intake : 2,280

Low Activity intake:  2,730

Moderate Activity Intake: 3,150

Very Active intake: 3,780

A healthy weight loss is of 1-2 pounds a week. To get 1 pound per week, you'd need to subtract 500 calories from your daily intake depending on how active you are. If you don't do any exercise, than you subtract 500 from 2,280 which is 1780 calories to lose 1 pound per week. If you want to lose 2 pounds the week, which is the maximum amount of weight loss you have in a week without causing health risks, you'd have to substract 1000 calories from your daily intake depending on your activity level. 2,280-1,000= 1,280. But since you are still growing, your body needs calories in order to keep you healthy, so a teen should never go below 1,500 calories. If you want to lose 2 pounds per week then engage in exercise :) If you were to exercise at least 4-5 days a week for 30-60 minutes a day, you'd be categorized under the Moderate Acvity level so you'd burn more calories and you'd be able to eat more which is better.

But now remember if you chose to work out, you have to take into consideration the amount of calories you burn in each work out. If you were to exercise to lose 1 pound per week, the best way to go about it is to burn 250 cals through exercise, and 250 less in your calorie intake..meaning you'd eat 250 less cals than your maintainance calories and burn 250 through exercise. Dont be fooled, because you can end up undereating if you dont get this right, and that can be very harmful for your body.

Remember to never go below the recommended intakes, and make extra sure you eat a balanced diet of enough protein (lean meats and lean cuts, like chicken and turkey) healthy carbs (whole grains- wheat bread, bran cereals, fruits and vegetables) and healthy fats! ( olive oil, avocados, nuts, peanut butter).

Eat each of these nutrients (protein, carbs and healthy fats) in each of your big meals...eat 6 times a day, so that you keep your metabolism working all day and drink plenty of water...about 2 liters a day. Eat small snacks in between your meals..meaning you'd have to eat every 2-3 hours. Good snacks can range from a piece of fruit, vegetables with some sort of low cal, low fat dip (Fat free ranch sauce), fat free yogurts, bran cereals...make the snacks small so that you dont go above 200 calories per snack :) a typical day would look something like this

Breakfast, snack, Lunch, snack, Dinner, snack.

Your dinner and late night snack should be light...like chicken with veggies for dinner, and a snack like a fruit.

Don't eat anything deep fried, fried by any means, junk food like fast food or chips, no sweets like cookies...if you really crave them, plan out a "cheat day" in your diet....that's one day out of a while that you can have cheat foods like these in your calorie intake. That way you dont deprive your body so much and you dont end up with binges like what happens to a lot of people who severely restrict calories and "forbidden" foods, and end up with one day when they just eat everything in site and halth their weight loss efforts.

So in the end if you keep your moderately active (burn 500 and eat 500 less cals), and consume around  2,650 calories a day, you can expect to see a healthy weight loss rate of about 2 pounds per week.

Good luck! anything else you need to know just ask!

Let us know how you keep up too ;)

-xo

I think you need to get mum on board if you're going to do this successfully.  She loves you so of course she's going to tell you that you look OK.... she doesn't want to hurt your feelings.  But I think if you sit her down and explain that you're very determined to be a healthy weight, then she'll have to take you seriously.   If she's responsible for the food shopping and most of the cooking, it'll be tough to go solo.

A good step could then be to go to see your doctor and ask for their advice.  A physical check-up (for both of you) could be a convincing reason to change your habits as a family.  It could be that your mum doesn't really know where to start.  If she's overweight herself (I'm guessing... ) it would be a fair assumption that she's not clued up on healthy eating and exercise.  You could ask the doctor if you could be referred to a family dietician to get the ball rolling.

As well as the advice posted above, this link has some good information for teens about healthy lifestyles.  http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/ Lots of great practical tips.

The one thing you can do for yourself is exercise.  Aim for one hour a day of anything active.   If you have a bike, for example, your could do that.  You could take up a dance class, go for walks, join an aerobics class, go swimming...   An hour of any kind of activity not only burns calories at the time but it also means your body is burning fat the rest of the day as well. 

Thanks so much guys!!

Both have you have been very helpful, especially you, bananee. Thanks for all the info and tips!!!!

I think I can do this now, and I'll try to talk to my mom to help get her supporting my weight loss quest.

Again, thank you guys soooo much!