i need help losin' some weight!

guys i need your assistance and support...

i am 16 years old, female, 5'3, 154 lbs.

i have a bunch of stomach flab i would like to get rid of, as well as these damn "lovehandles"!

but.. see... the problem IS is that i dont know much about losing weight.. and i dont want to harm myself or anything.. also, my family isnt really concerned about weight at all, they just eat what they eat... i try to limit my intake and stoof.. but man... when the food's there, i tend to overeat, which is no good. finally... i dont have access to a gym or free weights or machines or anything.. so im finding it hard to find things to do!

ill sum it up for ya.. here's the problems i have:

a) knowing which excersizes to do, and how to do them correctly
b) knowing how to eat, and how much, and all of that jazz
c) limiting how much i eat

can i target my stomach/ab area?? is that okay? because thats the thing that i would like to change the most.

what should be my target weight goal??

i hope i get some comments back, im TOTALLY confused about all of this!

oh and i just thought of something... its hard to get healthy "school food" at my school... what should i do?? my mom says its a lot cheaper for me to eat the school lunch then pack my lunch, but im allowed to sometimes!

thanks again!

 

you can't really target an area, unfortunately.

but you can lose overall weight by 1) limiting calorie intake and 2) cardio exercise. but mainly it will come from limiting calorie intake.

ways to do this simply are 1) cutting out all soda and calorie containing drinks, 2) substituting in fruits and veggies for snacks, 3) eating on a regular schedule with many small meals so you don't ever start feeling starved.

when you feel hungry, instead of reaching for something normal for snack food, open a can of green beans or some other vegetable you love and eat til you're stuffed. they're good for you and have so few calories that they practically don't even count

and remember you should never lose more than about 2 pounds per week, so don't set any goals that are beyond that, and don't get frustrated. if you really want to see results, try not to be half assed about it

i think that's the biggest problem with people when they try to lose weight - they work really hard some of the time, but then give in really easily, so that they spend half their time starved and half their time gorged, and so they don't see any results and then say "i tried dieting and it didn't work."

good luck! i think there's a lot of threads like this in the health forum too, btw.

 

I kinda disagree that you cant target an area, for example, you can tone your bod by using specific exercises, but you cant loose weitght from specific areas.

 

exercise exercise exercise. you'll burn the most calories using your legs for cardio exercise (jump rope, elliptical machines, running, biking etc). Personally, I like food too much to really limit what I eat, so I just try to exercise more. But the idea of eating veggies for snacks instead of chips is a really good idea (hell, even tortilla chips and salsa is healthier than potato chips)

I'm almost your height (5'2") and the same weight... I used to be around 130 and that's where I felt the healthiest. I know those little charts say my ideal weight is like 100-110 but it just doesn't feel right for me - I've got a large build for bones and I like having a little extra weight/energy in case of stress or cold weather or illness. A little roundness on a gal is fabulous!

 

I just wanted to tell you that I think it's so beautiful that you want to lose weight WITHOUT harming your body. I admire that sooo much. See, I am 5"1, 134 lbs, and 19 yrs old. I used to be thin ( I have an eating disorder) but I was incrediably miserable. Losing weight should be a healthy thing and I totally admire that you want to do it the healthy way.

 

Hi there girls.......

Honey,you are so young,gee 16yrs of age,couldn't it be that most of your weight is just "Puppy Fat" !

Well, i shouldn't go on any silly fast diets or anytning,just make sure you eat healthy,(no junk foods) well,in moderation and Swim,swim swimmmmmmmm,i have to admit,i go swimming quite regular,and boy,you soon loose the weight and tone up,(great for upper arms,and thighs).....once i stopped swimming, i put it on again,so go swimming,it really tones you up honey.let us know how you get on...good luck

 

I don't think 150 something is high for 5'3 especially if you're still growing.

 

losing weight isn't easy...but it is simple.
Eat less and exercise more. Seriously, that's all there is to it.

 

thanks for that advice ihmurria!!! i really dont eat a lot of chips anyways, unless you count chips and salsa, cause i LIVE on that stoof!! lol but i am going to try and excersize more than i am! and im starting P.E. this semester, so that will help out also!

this is GRRRRREATTTT because i have a pool!! its not indoors, and its winter right now, so i dont get to swim a lot at the moment but MOST DEFINATELY i swim in the summer, and not just in my pool... i go to ALL of the local swimmin holes with my brother so thats always fun!! thanks for reminding me of that, its right in my backyard and i had forgot!

thanks rainbowgrl, that really means a lot to me.... it really motivates me to do this the right way! thanks so much!

oh yeah, and i dont want to be SUPERMODEL thin or anything, i just wanna get rid of this super stomach fat! lol it doesn't make me hate on myself or anything, but it would be cool for it to go away! lol

thanks for the replies guys!!!

 

this is GRRRRREATTTT because i have a pool!! its not indoors, and its winter right now, so i dont get to swim a lot at the moment but MOST DEFINATELY i swim in the summer, and not just in my pool... i go to ALL of the local swimmin holes with my brother so thats always fun!! thanks for reminding me of that, its right in my backyard and i had forgot!



Thats great,well go on and make a "splash"..........

 

I've been 5'4" since I was about 11-12 yrs old, luckily I never gained alot of weight during high school...actually thanks to some medical problems I was quite thin back then.
But after fixing the medical problem, then marrying a "sugar-holic", and then having 7 kids I gained alot. I'm now 166# and would also like to lose more weight.
Do you have any excerise videos? Can ya take an extra gym class? do you have a pet dog...take it for a walk. Anything to keep moving.
Some of my fave snacks are air-popped popcorn & baby carrots, so if your craving chips then try crunching on those instead.

 

i looooooooooooove carrots... they sooo good! espeically baby carrots.. mmm... yummers... ive started a ti bo (sp?) class so that should PIMP ME UP!! thanks everyone!

whoa i just realized that says pimp... it should say pump... lol

 

the key is metabolism and knowing how your body digests and stores sugars. once your body has digested a simple sugar, any more complex sugar it recieves that day will be stored as fat. lemme give an example. you chug a pepsi, then eat an apple. since high-fructose corn syrup is a simpler sugar than the apple, the apple is stored as fat. if you eat the apple, then drink the pepsi, your body uses the sugar from the apple as energy, until that pepsi is drunk.
no soda, read labels, no splenda, no scarine, nothing unnatural.
a perfect diet for optimum metabolism is fruits only for breckfast, vegetables only for lunch, anything for dinner.
avoid any pork.
the pigs body is so close to the human body that your body dosent know how to digest it, when it finally learns how, you can develope diabetes, then your body wont know how to digest anything. there are 9 things in pig meat that the body cant digest or PASS(yes cant poop out) this is stored also in your intestines.
dont eat any thing that says light, or fat free, this is an advertising ploy, not a health message. avoid dairy products, except maybe hard cheeses. all that sour cream and cottage cheese will keep you fat, even if they say its fat free, they just add chemicals so that your body dosent digest it, they dont take it out.
eat healthy and natural and dont skip meals, build a good metabolism, drink plenty of water, and take a 30 minute LEISURLY walk at least once a day, not a power walk, not walking that you do at work or at school, it needs to be a restful stress free walk.

 

i gotta disagree on the no splenda

 

some other tips...

eat 6x a day(small meals) to boost your metabolism

and maybe most importantly, WEIGHT TRAIN! No, you wont become a female arnold schwarzenegger. You will however start burning muscle if you exercise a lot and dont work out your muscles. You will lose weight if you dont weight train, but you could get down to your ideal weight and look the same since you lost fast + muscle. Better to lose just fat

 

an alternative to weight training and other resistance exercises is Tai-Chi, which will get your whole body working in harmony. mast community colleges now have someone teaching it.

although ive not yet researched splenda, my opionion on it it more political and idelogical, keep it al natural.

 

chlorine is a naturally occuring molecule... just not.. in sugar.. hehe

if you research it, i'm pretty sure about all you'll find is that it's going to kill you.

 

i think supernova is stalking me.

 

porque??

 

i'll just pretend like i dont know what that means.:H