Im 16 and I can do this, right? Someone tell me I can
Okay, Hi everyone! I am 16 years old and I've always been quite big. I remember in the 5th grade when we had to get weighed and I weighed 160 pounds! I didnt feel so bad then because I had a friend that was even larger. But now and for the past couple of years, I've found myself constantly wondering why my parents didn't help me more. I obviously had a problem with my weight and at the age of 10, I didn't know exactly how to change and I definitely didn't want to change by myself. And maybe they're not where the blame goes, maybe the blame is all on me, but there's only so much you can do at a young age and without your parents help, your kind of stuck.
But Anyways, now that Im mature enough to understand what needs to change, I've been trying to take things into my own hands. But its really difficult considering Im 267 pounds now, I don't have enough money to completely change my diet, I don't have the motivation to stick with anything I start, I'm embarrassed to go to any of my local gyms seeing as ALL of the guys I've been crushing on work/visit there daily, I don't seem to have any energy, and I have to go to school everyday knowing that people are constantly judging me (& Im getting close to the point where I can hardly fit in the desks) and still keep up with the tons of AP classes Im in.
So, the reason I made this account is to maybe get some encouragement and advice from people who have been what I've been through, who know how to overcome these problems, and to hopefully make some friends that will definitively keep me going.
You can totally do it!! I was the same way when I was 16 (i'm 22 now).. I didnt change much when I was 16.. i just didnt eat as much and i slowly lost a little bit of weight.. but if I was 16 again.. here is the advice I would give to you because its what I am doing now and I wish I couldve done it earlier
I have little money to spend as well (since I am a single mother with no financial help from anyone)
I currently do not have a gym membership.. I mostly workout outside when its nice.. or I workout inside.. go look up Leslie Sansone on youtube and do her 1 - 5 mile walk (its great)
stop drinking soda and lower the amount of fried food and junk food you eat ( do get rid of all of it.. there will be nothing to look foward to)
also if you live at an apartment or no any friends who lives at an apartment.. they have fitness equipment that can be used for free.. thats where I workout.. its free
Welcome!! You're not alone, I can definitely relate! I was overweight when I was around 16 or 17.. around 220 pounds. I'm 20 now and I've lost around 70 pounds. I've had a lot of ups and downs and have had to work really hard, but it's been so worth it. Its nothing you can't handle, you've got this! I just joined this site recently, it is SO helpful for encouragement and staying on track. You've come to the right place
You absolutely can do it and in many ways I think your parents did you a favour but not pushing anything on you. Now that you're making the decision to go for it yourself you're way more likely to succeed because you've emotionally invested in it.
I know high school is busy and I know you think you're very busy but quite honestly, this is probably some of the most free time you will have in your life. If you can establish a routine now you'll be set. Good luck!
Yeah, living at home with your parents is tough when it comes to food choices. Making small changes to your diet, such as junk foods, will help your weight come down. In fact, cutting down on bread if you eat a lot helps tremendously. It did for me. I lost 5 kgs (10 lbs) in a couple of weeks by cutting my bread down to 1 piece a day!
Have a look at the food's inside the house and see which ones you can have more of (fruit and vege) and, perhaps, ask your parents to give you more vegetables for dinner and less meat/starch (potatoes)/pasta. Have a look online too (or ask here!) for some easy meal changes. You will notice a difference.
You absolutely can do it and in many ways I think your parents did you a favour but not pushing anything on you. Now that you're making the decision to go for it yourself you're way more likely to succeed because you've emotionally invested in it.
I really hope your right about this, but i wouldn't necessarily call it a favor that they didn't help more because being as big as I am, My confidence and self-esteem are extremely low and I know for a fact that i would be fairly attractive without the weight, but because I am big, I've missed out on all of the fun things that come with being in high school because of low self-esteem. And im not as sure as you that I can lose this weight. It's a lot of weight & I'm an emotional eater with no faith in myself. But thanks for the encouragement.
You can totally do it!! I was the same way when I was 16 (i'm 22 now).. I didnt change much when I was 16.. i just didnt eat as much and i slowly lost a little bit of weight.. but if I was 16 again.. here is the advice I would give to you because its what I am doing now and I wish I couldve done it earlier
I have little money to spend as well (since I am a single mother with no financial help from anyone)
I currently do not have a gym membership.. I mostly workout outside when its nice.. or I workout inside.. go look up Leslie Sansone on youtube and do her 1 - 5 mile walk (its great)
stop drinking soda and lower the amount of fried food and junk food you eat ( do get rid of all of it.. there will be nothing to look foward to)
also if you live at an apartment or no any friends who lives at an apartment.. they have fitness equipment that can be used for free.. thats where I workout.. its free
Thanks so much for the advice! I will definitely look up Leslie Sansone 5 mile walk. &Actually, I normally stay away from pop but I've hit a really big down and its just now that Ive begun drinking pop again. & as for junk food... Its going to be really hard to resist considering a new conveince store just opened up that's literally a minute from my house.
Yeah, living at home with your parents is tough when it comes to food choices. Making small changes to your diet, such as junk foods, will help your weight come down. In fact, cutting down on bread if you eat a lot helps tremendously. It did for me. I lost 5 kgs (10 lbs) in a couple of weeks by cutting my bread down to 1 piece a day!
Have a look at the food's inside the house and see which ones you can have more of (fruit and vege) and, perhaps, ask your parents to give you more vegetables for dinner and less meat/starch (potatoes)/pasta. Have a look online too (or ask here!) for some easy meal changes. You will notice a difference.
You can do it!
I try not to eat much bread and for a period of time my mom would buy wheat bread just for me. But I hit a really big down in confidence like a month ago & happened to get into an argument with my mom that convinced her not to go out of her way to buy me foods. But oh well. :/
& honestly, my mom really doesn't cook dinner every night. Its mainly just microwave meals that we eat at my house. She's a single mother of 4 who works really hard to get what little money we do have, but luckily, she does buy me smartchoice meals. Those are good, right?
& I really hope I can. Thanks for the encouragement
Welcome! A couple of thoughts:
-Your parents have not helped you to this point, but is there any way they can start helping now? Like see whether a parent will commit to being healthy with you - get interested in nutrition and healthy cooking together, research join weight watchers together, quit buying/eating junk food together, etc? I ask because it is hard to stick with a plan when someone else does the grocery shopping/cooking from your house.
-Can you talk to your doctor and get suggestions? It is always a good idea to talk to a doctor before you make dietary or exercise changes to make sure you are going about it in a healthy way. Maybe having a doctor on board will give you the accountability to stick with it because you know that next time you see him/her, they will check to see how you did!
-I feel like, if you are at the gym and see your crushes, they would be more likely to admire you for being active than to judge you for being at the gym. They see you are overweight other places they see you (like in school). They may respect that you are doing something to improve your fitness and have one of the same values as they do (taking care of your body). If you cannot afford the gym or are just way too self-conscious at this moment, do not underestimate the benefits of regular walking outside or fitness videos.
You can do this! I know it feels tough when you have been bigger from a very young age, I was too. 3FC is a great place to get advice and support. I wish you the best of luck and I encourage you to keep with it. We all make mistakes, and it takes practice to change our habits, but it you keep your mind on it and keep seeking encouragement, change will follow.
Welcome! A couple of thoughts:
-Your parents have not helped you to this point, but is there any way they can start helping now? Like see whether a parent will commit to being healthy with you - get interested in nutrition and healthy cooking together, research join weight watchers together, quit buying/eating junk food together, etc? I ask because it is hard to stick with a plan when someone else does the grocery shopping/cooking from your house.
-Can you talk to your doctor and get suggestions? It is always a good idea to talk to a doctor before you make dietary or exercise changes to make sure you are going about it in a healthy way. Maybe having a doctor on board will give you the accountability to stick with it because you know that next time you see him/her, they will check to see how you did!
-I feel like, if you are at the gym and see your crushes, they would be more likely to admire you for being active than to judge you for being at the gym. They see you are overweight other places they see you (like in school). They may respect that you are doing something to improve your fitness and have one of the same values as they do (taking care of your body). If you cannot afford the gym or are just way too self-conscious at this moment, do not underestimate the benefits of regular walking outside or fitness videos.
Good luck!
-To your first point, I think my dad would be willing to get healthy with me seeing as he is already into being fit and stuff but I don't live with him and if I were to move in with him, i wouldn't really have anywhere to stay. :/ But my mom, I think she would try but then again, I know her and I honestly think she'd be one to try for a while but I dont think she'd be serious about it. And, I have 3 other siblings who live with me and they're all younger and my mom insists that having junk food in the house is inevitable and that if I really wanted to lose weight, it wouldn't matter. She doesnt really understand how hard it is for me..So honestly, Im kind of on my own.
-And about a year ago I talked to my doctor. And after talking to her I actually lost some weight, but then Idk what happened, but I gained that all back and plus some. Maybe I should go again? But I feel that if I do go again, that would just be redundant and I would just hear the same things I heard before, which I already know.. Knowing isnt the problem, sticking to it is.
-And maybe my crushes would respect me, but that is so embarrassing! & I'm one of the shyest people ever. I can't see myself doing that. & I do have access to many workout vids. But once again, that's not the problem. My problem is sticking to anything and exercising everyday and this mainly comes about because of school, but if I get off just one day, i feel discouraged and just stop. & I just am bad at changing. I know all of my issues, but I feel as if I cant change them.
& thanks, I really hope that I can lose this weight but I doubt myself.
You can do it It may not be easy, but you can. I think that the majority of people here who have been successful have "failed" many times. If you keep at it, then one day you are going to get it right. And, whenever you do go back to bad habits, look at it as a minor setback you can recover from, NOT that you failed again. (As an aside, I just read "The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl" - it is a great success story of a girl who starts her weight loss journey at 350 lbs at 22 years old. It really shows the ups and downs of the weight loss journey - physically and emotionally. It is a slow journey for her, but she gets there. The biggest thing I took away from it was that I need to be kinder to myself)
I have problems refraining from giving advice, so my advice would be to start with 1-3 lifestyle changes you can maintain. Don't make them too hard, but make them stuff you are not doing already. Track them- even make yourself a sticker chart. Once you master those, you can move on to others. Here are some ideas:
-Eat a healthy breakfast daily
-8 glasses of water a day. Try to stop drinking any calories (e.g., pop, sweetened drinks)
-No junk food. Don't carry money if you are going past the convenience store. If you restrict junk food, do give yourself a weekly treat - if you know one is coming up, you may be able to fend off cravings during the week.
-Set an activity goal (e.g., 20 minutes of exercise 3 times per week to start). See if a friend wants to walk with you
-Fill 1/2 your dinner plate with veggies
The point is to set some goals that are doable! If you "fail," tomorrow is a great day to start over. Remember, most people here who are successful have tried many times before.
Maybe an accountability partner would help. Like a friend you can check in with/exercise with. The trick is that you both need to be committed to encourage the other person - if someone's heart is not in it, the arrangement falls apart. Maybe you can find somewhere on this board where you feel comfortable checking in.
Sorry if I am overdoing it on the advice! I just feel like I have been where you are! Shy, unconfident, hard on myself.
In almost every post, you share why you may fail. There needs to be a mental shift to why you are going to succeed. You must have succeeded in many other areas of your life, seeing that you are an AP student.
I completely understand. I'm 18 and started losing weight last fall. I didn't really have much motivation when I started out either. Don't worry, though - as you lose weight, the motivation comes from seeing yourself shrink and looking toward your goal. Along the way, I set some mental "rules" for myself that I try hard not to break. No fried foods, and I hardly ever eat cake/cookies/sweets unless they're made in a healthy way. For example, one of my favorite sweet things is brownies made with a box of the low-fat mix + a can of pumpkin. So simple and they taste even better than the original. I count calories so I use an app called MyFitnessPal to track my calories. I can honestly say I wouldn't have come this far without that website. The fact that it's so simple to use makes it almost fun. By the way, while exercise is very important to weight loss and overall fitness, it IS possible to lose weight without exercising regularly. I'll probably get bashed for saying that, but honestly, I lost the first 30 lbs without exercising hardly at all. As long as you track your calories and use them wisely by eating the right foods, you'll lose weight. One of the fun parts of this journey is discovering new foods. I'll admit, I probably eat too much healthy "junk" foods, like whole grain pancake mixes and granola bars. I get too much sugar and sodium from those foods, but the way I see it is that I could be eating candy bars and frozen chocolate chip waffles instead, so I don't beat myself up over it. Drink a lot of water, and make a conscious effort to catch yourself when you want to eat out of boredom rather than actual hunger. These are a few of the things I've learned thus far. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or want to chat. You CAN do it. Good luck!
Im 16 and I can do this, right? Someone tell me I can
I am 16 years old and I've always been quite big. I remember in the 5th grade when we had to get weighed and I weighed 160 pounds! I didnt feel so bad then because I had a friend that was even larger. But now and for the past couple of years, I've found myself constantly wondering why my parents didn't help me more. I obviously had a problem with my weight and at the age of 10, I didn't know exactly how to change and I definitely didn't want to change by myself. And maybe they're not where the blame goes, maybe the blame is all on me, but there's only so much you can do at a young age and without your parents help, your kind of stuck. 
