teen who wants to know how to lose weight.

I'm 17 and I want to know how to lose weight. How many calories should I be consuming? How much should I exercise. I weight-lift and do cardio. Does that change my caloric needs? I'm so confused!

5'3"
123 pounds

thanks in advance :)

Kids bodies are constantly changing and growing.  Tools that are found on the internet are made for adult bodies that have stopped changing.  While an adult may need 1800 calories, a kid might need 2200.

Seeing as kids can differ greatly in their needs, the only recommendation that should be given on the internet is to eat healthy and stay active.  If you are concerned with weight loss, you should talk to your doctor about it to get a nutrition plan that suites your needs, needs of someone who is ever changing.

To answer you question about exercise and changing your calorie intake...yes, you would need to eat more the more you workout.  Calorie = energy for your body.  If you take away 400 of that energy to workout with, you need to still feed your body enough to function properly.  General rule is eat back what you workout.

I hate to say it Bigtwinky but a 17 year old girl is not a kid anymore.  She doesn't need to eat 400 calories to compensate for the running around and playing she does because 17 year olds don't really do that anymore.  Use the tool online as a guide but take a look at your activity level and what you want to lose.  I eat 1500-1600 calories a day because i find despite the website saying i should be eating 1400-1500 I always feel hungry and my stomach is grumbling by the end of the night or mornings when I get up.  Everyone's body is different.  Use it as a judge and then base how you're feeling if you should eat more or less.

You are smack in the middle of your healthy BMI range, hon. At 123 pounds, you are exactly a 21.5. Please don't let insecurity or unrealistic standards push you into losing weight you don't need to.

If you are still unsatisfied with your body, I would simply recommend plenty of fruits, vegetables, fiber, and exercise. The intake standards for a 17yo are close enough to adult, so you can use the tools here to tell you how many calories you need per day. You should be doing 30-60 minutes of cardiovascular exercise on most days of the week, which will help you look and feel good about yourself. Nothing burns fat faster.

Just remember, if you exercise, you have to add those calories back into your calorie expendature. For example, if you eat 1200 calories and do a 400 calorie workout, your daily calorie intake will be 800-- you need to eat 400 calories more of food, or your body will think it's starving.

Every body is different, but they can all go by the same basic rules: 1) don't restrict too much, 2) be realistic about your expectations, 3) eat more fruits, veggies, and whole grains, 4) get some protein, 5) exercise!

my .02 - that was my high weight! so i felt like popping in and saying to go for muscle not a very low weight.  but hello anyway :D

check out the allowance/expenditure tools to know how much to eat.

well if your at healthy weight...y not just tone?

I suggest you visit mypryamid.gov. You can put in your stats and find out how much of each food group you should be eating.  The charts will give you foods within each food group and also how much constitutes a portion. 

yes weight lifting and cardio does change your calorie needs -- that's why the formulas ask you to identify your activity level.  Each level is a different number multiplied by your bmr.

Example, and I'll just use made up numbers:

just to exist = bmr = 1500 calories

sedentary, just sitting around, desk job, couch potato = 1500 x 1.2 = 1800 calories

light activity, light exercise/sports 1-3 days a week = 1500 x 1.375 = 2063 calories

moderate activity, moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days a week = 1500 x 1.55 = 2325 calories

very active, hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week = 1500 x 1.725 = 2588 calories.

You can see, that's quite a difference.

I recommend that you do the following to determine the bmr for your GOAL weight, not your current weight.

Then multiply it by the activity level that best describes your laziest day in the week.

Then multipy it by the activity level that best describes your most active day in the week.

Use those two calorie numbers as your range.

Stay within that calorie range, make healthy food choices, keep up the activity level, occasionally intensify the activity level, and let the weight take care of itself.

thank u all for ur care and concern. i am almost 18 (three weeks away) and i have a small body, so while 123.5 sounds little, i can afford to lose another ten pounds and still look more than healthy.

i am very active and i eat very healthy food. i just wanted to make sure i was eating enough. i'll take all ur advice to heart. if u have any other recommendations, pls bring them my way.

thanks again :)

hi! i've lost 90 pounds and i just turned 17 :D so it can be done, you just have to know how to do it. I'll trust your judgement that you can lose 10 lbs and be healthy, so I wont get into the whole "omg you're annorexic" thing. Which has been happening a lot on these boards lately....anyways. So when I lost weight, I made sure that I ate 'real' foods for every meal, veggies, fruit, meat (if your a carnivore like me :D) and some bread. I didn't eat a whole lotta sugar, and I ate 1500 cals a day with a 20 minute bike ride every day. i think that was a little too fast of a weight loss, tho, so i recommend going slower than that...but seeing as you aren't as heavy as i was (uh i was like 107 lbs heavier) obviously you will have to eat less to lose weight. I believe the tools on this site will help a lot, I think you burn about 1800 cals a day sitting around doing nothing, then you add your activities, and thats how many cals you burn a day. then take off a 500 cal deficit to lose a pound a week.