i am fattt!

The worst thing you can do for your body is dieting to lose weight quickly. Changing your habits and lifestyle will be of more benefit to you now and in the future. The weight will come off slowly and stay off rather than bouncing back and forth with each quick diet. (Listen to what I say, not what I did. Learn from my mistakes.)

Learn about portion control. On average, each component of your meal should be no bigger in size than your fist.

Since the quantity of food you will be eating is less, you'll want to make sure it is quality nutrition. Try to eliminate most processed food and eat things as close to their original form as possible, such as unpackaged or uncanned vegetables and fruit.

Eliminate sweets such as sodas and sugary cereals, cookies and candy.

Sweeten things with fruit when possible using raisins, apples, apple juice, etc.

Try to eat whole grains rather than processed grains.

Limit the amount of salt in your diet. Select low sodium items when given the choice.

Stay away from fast food and pizza places as much as possible. Drink lots and lots of water. Try not to eat anything for at least two hours before you go to bed. That hungry feeling is a good thing. It means your body is using up stored fat to feed itself.

Don't skip meals. Doing so will make your body think you are starving to death and it will slow down calorie burning.

Schedule your mealtimes and stick to it as much as possible. Three meals, plus two snacks, one mid-morning and one mid-afternoon. Make those snacks small and healthy such as an apple or banana. Just enough to satisfy the hunger, not fill you up.

Find some physical activities you enjoy and do them as often as possible rather than watching TV or sitting in front of the computer. Doesn't have to be "exercise" just something physical such as walking around the block, helping mom with chores like vacuuming the house, etc.

GEL, what city do you live in? Maybe I can find some groups near you that you can meet up with for support and guidance in losing the weight.

It is much easier to do this with a buddy. Also, tell your parents what you are doing and ask them to support you by buying the best nutritional food they can afford to give you. Ask them to join you in some of the physical activities. Get the family outdoors for a game of baseball or just play catch for an hour.

Men like women with full hips.

You don't want to look like a skinny boy with no butt.

I know you're only 14, but someday you'll be very glad you have a round figure and look like a real woman.

Trust me on this.


If you are indeed 195 pounds, you could loose about 20, and build up some muscle. Work on your arms and thighs for strength.

Try belly dancing for flexibility. If you can move your body easily, you will feel really good about yourself.

According to this scale you should weigh about 127 lbs.

Weight Calculator

GEL, I suggest you read the first 6 pages of the "teen diets" thread that is in this forum for some good and practical solutions. Personally, I don't agree with Chai. I think overweight people (especially young girls) have a much tougher time socially. 195 lbs is not a healthy or attractive weight for a 5' 6" girl. Even at 175 lbs you would be still considered obese in medical terms.

It's time to change your eating habits and start moving more. Don't worry that is will not happen quickly, if you take control of your habits you will lose the weight and keep it off. Butterfly made a good suggestion of joining a group, maybe Weight Watchers or OverEaters Anonymous. You can do it.

Here's a good link.......

http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?tab=all&go=homepage&q=exercise&scope=all&Search.x=38&Search.y=12

Hope it helps.

Here's a link to the Teen Diets thread mentioned earlier.

I agree with Green Witch and wish I'd listened to people when I was a teen. Unfortunately, it is difficult to hear when the advice is given in the form of a criticism rather than supportive coaching.

It may seem like a really hard struggle to lose the weight now, but please please please believe me when I tell you that in reality, this is when it will be the easiest for you to do it. Ageing only makes it more difficult.

I'd love to see you become proud of your body while you are still young and able to enjoy the benefits. I admire you for the strength it took to come here and ask for help. Keep coming back and let us know your progress and allow us to support you.

GreenWitch.

I have to respectfully disagree with that 127 pounds.

Looking at another body mass index calculator, that puts her at 20.2, not that far that those models in Madrid have to be before they get banned.

I understand that @ 14, a young ladies body compostion is different than an adults. However, asking someone who weighs 195, an adult or an adolescent, to lose almost 70 pounds would be discouraging to say the least.

I fiddled with the numbers on another BMI chart, and Okay, I made her birthday like 2 days ago so she just turned 15. Gotta give a little grace.

Messing around with the figures, our young lady would only have to get down to 151 pounds to be able to rightfully call herself in the "normal" weight range.

That just about cuts her weight loss in half, and frankly, I've seen skinny kids, mostly girls, who don't look heathy or happy because they are trying for some magic number.

From the way this young lady discribes herself, I want to guess she's got some good healthy wide bones in her pelvis, not little bird bones. If our new friend started doing some fun exercise, with her high youthful metabolism, the pounds will come off and her body weight will settle where it should be.

GEL 209, If you try to loose those pounds too fast, you'll really mess up your metabolism and have a much greater chance of gaining the weight back and having a harder and harder and harder time loosing it until you might get to the point as a woman where you couldn't loose any at all, even though you may need to.

It's not healthy to be overweight, but it's not healthy and it doesn't look at all pretty to be starving all the time. It's your heritage to have nice round curves. There's a lot of women who go out and pay good money to look curvier.

Yes, you do need to lose weight, but please be sensible about it.

Find pictures of girls who are NOT skinny, but still pretty to use as your models. They are real people, not those air brushed models.

The mental and physical stress are trying to fit the mold of something that in reality doesn't even exist can be just as bad as the extra pounds.

Love yourself just as you are right now GEL 209 and you'll have an easier time of losing the weight.

Wait type of exercise do you like to do?

Start running, lifting weights, gymnstics and do anything to keep your body MOVING. If you're not in good shape now it's gonna be a bitch when you get older. When I was 12 I was a little chubby and I was taunted. I started working out heavily, became fit and strong and never got picked on again! Now I do the picking!

thanx guys i needed to hear this most definetly, for exsercise i play volleyball and i ride horses like not just as a pony ride thing either like i compete so its alot of work with my abs and legs and stuff but its just not ENOUGH you know?..welll anymore helpful suggestions

I agree with Chai, for now. No need to post a 20 index any time soon. I think 25 is borderline re overweight, and 30, or thereabouts, the edge for obese. And this indicator can be skewed for people with more muscle per pound.

But, do listen to all the comments about exercise, and study nutrition - it's actually interesting. I grew up in the fifties and we near unanimously knew nothing much about nutrition and a huge number of us were told not to overheat ourselves when we went out to play.

Learn about food and exercise, it'll be worth your while, and you'll feel better. Exercise often increases a sense of well being, and leaves you not hungry for a while after. Don't overdo it at first. Start slow and work up to different kinds of moving around. I'd be surprised if you don't feel better, but if you already exercise and still pack on weight, and even if not, it'll help you to learn about nutrition.

Chai, I agree that Gel needs to be sensible and take it one pound at a time. I hope she will understand that fast weight loss is not better and can damage her metabolism, which will make it harder for her to keep weight off. My niece is 15 and the same height as Gel, she is not small boned, average structure, and I know she now weighs about 125. Last year she weighed about 140 and everyone just kept telling her it was "baby fat" and it would go away. No one wanted to say "yeah you're chubby". Well she decided to prove us all wrong and started eating less junk (no soda, fries, white carbs, or processed snacks). It took her 6 months to lose the weight and she looks much better now. Before she didn't have much of waist, she does now. I think her curves are better and more female. She had boobs before, but I swear they are actually a little smaller and fit her figure better. I don't know how you got the number of 150lbs, but I'm 46 and 5' 6' and I weigh 145 lbs, which is where I should be for someone my height and age, so I don't see how a 14 or 15 year old should weigh more than me. I think Gel can do this, but she needs to see the reality of the situation. She is technically obese, no matter what her bone structure. I know it's hard when you're her age to just change how you eat and exercise, I hope her mom or a friend will join her and make it fun. However, the truth is the truth. She has the power to take control, but only when she decides the situation is such that being lean and healthy is more important than that next bag of potato chips.

Gel I hope you will hang around and let us know how you do. I know there's a diet support thread here that you are welcome to join. All us ladies (and some guys) can relate to the situation and we're cheering for you.

Last tip Gel: Keep a food diary, every bite, every calorie. It will help you see what you are eating too much of and when. Try and keep your calories about 1500-1600 per day, not less, and you should lose about 2 pounds a week. Within a year you can be at your healthy weight.

green witch: thanx appreciae ur help and i no me being a 14 year old i'm gonna sound ridiculous and maybe even bratty but 1 year is wayy tooo long i need to do this fast and keep the wait off i no their are diets out there tat help u lose like 5-8 pounds a week and with lots of excerscise helps u to keep it off i just need to look one up which i'm trying to do no but i also love thee advice because it helps me incorprite a little of everyones aadvice together and ind of make my own diet which is healthy but helos me lose weight fast..okay and this is the part where i might sound bratty but please dont take it to any offense: okay i am in a new generation from you green and i have something to live up to and i'm not saying u didt when u were younger but things have changed people and style is changeing and i need to keep up and beable to live up to whats expected now if you would like some more advice would be great!




still another reminder - i'm not meaning to sound like a teen nightmare but its just what i think of how i need to change my life







-GEL

I disagree with almost everyone on earth in that I think losing about three pounds a month is plenty after the beginning loss after starting to pay attention. (I've watched a lot of people diet and a lot of people gain back.)

Ww's helps some folks, and is set, I think, at a higher loss than that. It works sometimes.

People who are actively working off calories on the job or exercising much more than they'd done before may be able to lose more than that without an eventual bounce back, as long as they keep it up.

I prefer the idea of a long time sustainable expectation of exercise, and gradual change to really liking nutritional food best, with no surprises like starvation to one's biochemistry.

Gel, no there aren't. Your body then goes into fat storage mode. A lot of biochemical changes happen with that kind of effort, and they're not good.

Gel

you're not being bratty, but I think you need a little education, if I may....

If you are on a diet where you are losing 5 - 8 pounds a week, you are not loosing fat, you are losing precious muscle. Muscle is what you want to retain. You'd also be losing a lot of water, and that will put your electrolytes all out of balance.

You probably heard that a pound of fat equals 3500 calories. OK, if you were going to lose 5 - 8 pounds a week, that 2500 to 4000 calories a day!!

Obviously, you cannot lose that much fat a week, if you are eating anything at all. You are eating at least 2500 a day just to maintain your weight.

If you restrict yourself severely, all you will do is set yourself up for failure. You go all day without eating enough, or not eating at all, and how long do you think you can do that before you give up?

I think enough people here have said that's a very, very bad idea.

Question, what is your big rush? Would you rather lose muscle and water and starve and look sickly, just to gain it all back and more? Or would you rather loose a few pounds a month and keep it off.

Greenwitch....I got that 151 lbs. by using a BMI from the Center of Disease Control. Take a look at the link below.

BMI for Teens

Actually, when you figure with the same numbers for an adult, you essentially come up with the same thing by that age.

I suppose I'd rather weigh in (no pun intended) on the side of a person being in the range of looking like they could loose 10 pounds, than have to see the anguish people (especially young teens and women in general) go through because they have to get to that "perfect" shape.

In truth, in the past year I've read there's evidence that those 10 extra pounds aren't going to hurt a thing, especially if you are a fit person. Then again, there's that new thing going on where people maintain an extremely low BMI, and are said to extend their lives for years. (I think it might just feel that way, since you have to be starving all the time). I recently read an article in the New Yorker Magazine about a group of people who live like that, and meet with each other for dinner, and it was absolutely insane....this one man was actually having his girlfriend, the hostess, measure out his argula IN GRAMS...they were literally taking off one leaf of lettuce to have it come to what he would eat.

That's why I'm truthfully not an advocate of measuring, marking down every single bite of food...I think doing that, along with the pressure to look/be a certain way, can lead to a very unhealthy obsession.

Sure at first you need to figure out what constitutes a cup, or a serving of meat, but I don't think there's enough difference between eating a medium apple and a large one. Apples are good food, period.

I'm just advocating a healthy balance. GEL, do fun things, play an extra game of volley ball, go horseback riding one more time a week.

Instead of eating packaged snacks, eat some fresh. Oh...actually here's a suggestion for something for you to carry around in your backpack for when you get the hungries....try some of those Luna Bars, they're probably in your supermarket, in the health food section, they have yummy flavors, they have a moderate glycymic load, which basically means it stays with you longer, and has good things all young women need; calcium, omega oil, folic acid. They taste great. I have one in the middle of the morning, and I'm not hungry until about 1 o'clock.

Again, what's your big rush, is something happening in 2 months that you can't also enjoy in 6? While looking prettier and feeling better at the same time.

oh....just so you know....I was a skinny kid, but got really chubby at about 10....then, when I turned 16, I slimmed back down. How? I went swimming almost every day, walked to where I needed to go, and ate filling things like cantalopes and cottage cheese for lunch, cut out mashed potatos and that's about it. At 14 and 16, your metabolism is on overdrive. All the weight I needed to lose came off over 1 summer vacation.

Now of course I'm much older, and wish I had that metabolism back. So, if you diet to severly, you'll have an old lady metabolism like mine.

Volleyball and horseback riding are good exercise but they are not aerobic. When I was his age I was running 5 miles a day. I also did weights and I was the sit-up king at my high school. I could do 100 full sit-ups at a 90 degree angle when I was 17. I can't do that many now but I'm still in good shape for an old guy. My abs are still rock hard and I've never had a back ache. You have a young body so make as much use of it as you can!

yeah okay thanx i mean obv u guys r right ur the adults or w.e and thanx for te advice i'm just so eager to do this because i feel disgusting and i let myself get this way and my mom was HUGE before like300 pounds and i dont EVER ant to be like that like it was so bad her doctor told her she had to get weight loss surgery or die of obeisty so obv she got the surgery and now shes tiny and weighs less than me but i dont ever want to even be close to her situatuion and i have alot of things coming up in my life that i dont want to look utterly disgusting for and i just need help!

sorry..another thing is like honestly i dont look 195 pounds AT ALL! i look alot smaller than that but its the ******* hispanic eating habits and curves god damn it! haha but anyways my point is when people see me they see i'm a little over weight but they dont see it that much but I FEEl the disgustingness and its ten times worse when people think u have "beutiful" curves and what not and i feel like the total opposite than that..like i dont know if it makes sense but hopefully u get it..

yeah, I get it GEL.

I was very curvy too at your age, and I do know what it's like. Sometimes you get attention you don't want. It makes you feel very uncomfortable.

I have to disagree with nick. Volleyball and horseback riding are aerobic.
You're not just sitting on the horse, but interacting with it. Since you really like those 2 things, stick with them.

For instance, me? I personally hate hate hate running. At one point, thinking there was something weird about me because it seemed everyone else was doing it, I took up running and stuck with it for more than 6 months. That's more than enough time to either get into it. I hated every single second of the whole thing. My body is just not built for running.....however, skating? whooo hoooo! Love it. In other words GEL, find out what's fun for you.

I had a gf who rode a lot, and said it really works your upper body too. Handling the reins, pulling back, etc.

I totally believe you that you don't look 195 pounds. It sounds like you are really solidly built. That's also kinda what I meant with my post to greenwitch, 127 will look different on a couch potato, average person, active person and marathon runner.

Do you eat a lot of hispanic food? Refried beans, tortillas, etc.? Does your mom cook them from scratch or what?

Just a suggestion...if you're having tortillas and dinner and you usually eat 2, just take one. The refried beans aren't really healthy, they are loaded with lard, so if you really want some just take a spoonful or 2. There are some healthier, fat free dry and canned versions out there, try some or ask your mom to buy you some. Also, cut down on the rice and cheese. Just take a little. Instead of the tortillas and beans and rice, take more tomatos and other vegetables. Oh, and eat as much salsa as you want.

Actually beans are very good for you, but not mashed up with lard. Whole black beans and pinto beans are very good, will take a long time to digest so you won't be hungry. It might be that you are eating too much of certain foods, and just need to cut down on those items.

Can you tell us what kinds of meals you eat during a typical week?