Hey whats up guys im new here this is my first day.im a teen girl that weighs 150 pounds and im 5'8'' and thats really tall and it does not go with my weight at all.i want to be a model one day becuz i am so fat.

I need some advice on how to eat healthy and maintain.Because whenever i see food i always think i need to finish all of it so it wont be there anymore.also when i am bored and theres nothing to do i go and look for food because it makes me feel good.please give me some advice on how to keep the food away.
im on the calorie counting diet.

Hey Thick(Lol), welcome aboard to 3Fat Chicks, You will love it here. Well, I know what you are going through. I hate it when that happens to me but now, I have overcome that and taking control of what I eat, not letting food take control of me. Since you are calorie counting, I recommend for you to take protein, it suppresses your appetite, so you won't go hungry. Try some egg white in the morning. Also, you need your fiber, fiber absorbs fat and also suppresses your appetite. Also, try apples, apples are filling fruits that control cravings and try drinking more water. If you see a piece of Chocolate cake, drink some water, it may help. I hope that helped you.

I understand where you're coming from with using food for comfort and something to do when you're bored. If you're counting calories, I would try to make sure that you're eating a big(ger) breakfast, a good sized lunch, substantial (protein) snacks and a lighter dinner. When you start your day off with healthy foods (oatmeal, whole grain cereal with skim milk, fruits, eggs, "soysage") then it boosts your metabolism and keeps you from getting the munchies. However, if you skip breakfast, eat a very light lunch that is low in protein, then by 3pm you're body is starving and you will make poor choices.

This forum is a great place to help you sort out issues you have with food....these friendly people will help you begin to see food not as comfort, entertainment or pleasure - but as fuel for your body.

Since you're a young adult, your body is still growing and developing, so it's doubly important for you to have a balanced diet. And wow, you're tall too! I calulated your BMI (body mass index) and for your height (5'8"), 150 pounds is normal. Your goal of 120 would make you underweight for your height, which isn't good either. It's totally possible that you feel "fat" and I understand that completely. It may be that you need to tone your body - if that's the case, then exercise may be what you need. Exercise boosts your metabolism, increases your lean muscle mass (woohoo!) and released endorphins, chemicals in your body which give you that good feeling and natually curb hunger.

Why don't you post a sample of your day, food and exercise?

You're going to look like starvin' Marvin at 120lbs and 5'9"!!


Man I feel like a chubster , my goal weight is 125 and I'm only 5'2" lol

I am concerned that your goal weight is a bit lo for your height. Actually for your height a healthy weight range is 129-162.

I was a bit concerned when I saw your goal weight too. At 120 and 5'9", your BMI will classify you as "underweight." You probably shouldn't refer to yourself as "so fat" when you're 5'9" and 150, because you're actually at a healthy weight. I can understand that you may want to be leaner, but you are at a healthy weight for your height. Trying for 120 may be a bit frustrating for someone of your (our) height, and if you make it you might end up looking a bit like a nine-year-old boy instead of a woman, I'm afraid. If that's what you're going for, please forgive me for saying it! I just hope you recognize that you ARE at a healthy weight right now.

hey whats up hunneys i know you think that i am going a little to far with the wieght that i want to lose at my hieght but whenever i shake my arms to test how big i am my blubber starts moving round. i need to lose to this wieght to get me more self confidence abnd i just went on a knew diet called calorie cycyling and its a diet when one day i can only eat 500 calories one day and the next day i eat as much as i want.today all i had was a coffee 3 slices of bread and a donut.right know i just had 2 healthy ice pops which taste incredibly good and they are 2.5 calories each and i had 2 of them so that equals 5 calories.it is 4:18 pm and i had about 700 calories i know thats over 500 but i lost about 200 calories from playing a basketball game at school.im planning on eating nothing else today.my friend is probably starving herself on her diet shes younger than me shes 11 and she wieghts 60 pounds.thanks 4 reading and pleez give me some support on this diet i need it thanks.

Mami,

How old are you?

If you want to lose a few pounds then that's fine, but you need to do it healthfully. As many of the women on this site will tell you, drastic diets like 500 calories every other day *may* help you to lose weight quickly, but you WILL regain that weight and you will probably gain lots more to boot. This is why lots of women will tell you that 'dieting made them fat'. You will not be the exception. Crash diets are a terrible idea.

The absolute minimum calories a day for a grown woman is 1200, and for someone your height, this is on the low side. Girls who are still growing and developing need alot more. You will be hungry, cranky and tired trying to run your system on only 500 calories AND you will shock your body into starvation mode--that is, you body will think there is a famine, and it will cling to every last ounce of fat on your body. If you are getting those 500 calories from bread and doughnuts, you will be malnourished as well as hungry, cranky and tired, your hair will fall out, your skin will look awful and your body will burn muscle instead of fat. NOT GOOD.

A much better alternative would be to eat 1500 calories a day. This is the equivalent, over the course of a week, of eating 500 calories one day and 2500 the next, but it is much healthier and will be much more effective in the long term. 1500 calories is probably a good number (though you could go higher if you are active--and you should go higher if you are under 16 and still developing), because you needn't ever feel hungry. You should NEVER FEEL HUNGRY. The trick, however, is to get those 1500 cals from veggies and lean protein (chicken breasts, egg whites, fish) and complex carbs, NOT from white bread and doughuts. You will be hungry and unhealthy if you try to limit yourself to 1500 calories a day in the form of refined white flour, sugar and fat. Eat breakfast, have a fruit snack, eat lunch, have another snack and then eat a light dinner. This is a sensible and effective diet. It will work, you will feel healthy and you will be able to keep it up.

Finally, depending on how old you are, you will probably find that if you start snacking on fruit and veggies instead of junk, and do some more exercise (maybe even weights to tone up those arms!) you will lose a bit of weight too. The important thing to remember is that unhealthy diets and unrealistic expectations will not help you--in the long run, they will leave you heavier and more unhealthy than you are at the moment.

Mami, there is book that you might try to find at the library, or ask your parents if they might buy. It's called Weight Loss Confidential: How Teens Lose Weight and Keep It Off - and What They Wish Parents Knew, and was written by Anne Fletcher. They can buy it at almost any bookstore or on Amazon. The author is really nice and spent a long time working with teenagers to write this book. It might have a lot of answers for you. Your dietary needs are different from those of adults, and so the diet advice found here on our forum may not apply to you. You might share the book with your friend, too.

Good luck

Hey!

Gee, I do support you in wanting to lose some weight--although 120 might be a bit low. I want to encourage you to find out more about it! Try that book Suzanne 3FC has suggested.

And do some reading here--if you go to the main page, you can find starting points for lots of information on good ways to lose.

Cheers!
Jay

Hi Mami-

I also wanted to echo the sentiments of the other ladies here. You are currently not overweight for your height, but you mentioned the fact that when you shake your arms and move around-that your "bluber moves". Honestly, it doesn't sound to me like you are OVERWEIGHT, it sounds to me like you are UNFIT, and there is a big difference.

Your weight in pounds is pretty normal-in fact, if you want to actually lose weight on the scale, I would only recommend going down to 140-definitely not 120 for your height. (I am 5'7", and 120 is too thin for ME.)

What I suggest that you focus on instead-is getting FIT. When you get fit with regular exercise, your body gets tighter and firmer, because you have more muscle, and less body fat. (The scale just reads pounds-it doesn't tell you if you are a firm and fit 150, or a flabby 150.)

There can be two women of the same height and weight-and one woman can have firm legs, and a flat tummy, and wear a size 8, and the woman next to her can be jiggly and wear a size 12-at the SAME weight. It is a matter of being FIT.

You can be skinny, and still have jiggly, wiggly arms, belly, and thighs if you are not fit. Honestly, not exercising, and eating 500 calories a day of donuts/popsicles/white bread actually guarantees that is what will happen if you stick with that sort of a plan.

You need to do a few things differently:

~Exercise. Walk, do yoga or Pilates videos, take a dance/aerobics/martial arts/strength training class or whatever you like. Just MOVE.

~Eat 1200-1500 calories a day. It is fine to have 1245 one day, and 1470 the next, as long as you are staying in a healthy calorie range for weight loss. (Some people here eat more than this and lose weight-it depends on your age and height-this should be a good level for you.)

~Remember, a healthy rate of weight loss is 1/2-2 pounds per WEEK.

~Forget the word "diet". A diet will make you lose weight, and then it wil come right back when you go "off the diet". Make lifestyle changes instead-that you will do for LIFE. That is the key to losing the weight, and keeping it off-instead of having to go on a diet a couple times every year-and yo-yoing up and down the scale.

~Use food as fuel. Your body is like a car. It needs gasoline, oil, coolant, and other things in it for it to run properly. Your body is the same way. What would happen if I put sugar in the gas tank, and shampoo in where the oil goes? I'd have a car that doesn't run properly.

Your body needs a certain amount of fuel each day (calories) and it also needs that fuel to be certain things-fruits/veggies for vitamins and antioxidants and fiber, protein for your muscles, calcium for your bones, and so on. White bread is horrible-it is overly processed, and pretty much turns to sugar in your system, and provides little nutrition. Donuts-same thing. Popsicles-sugar free and low cal-but also low nutrition.

You can EAT on 1200-1500 calories a day, even at restaurants, and be healthy, and lose weight in a fashion that you can stick with-and feed your body properly. For instance, a day could look like this:

Breakfast:
1 cup strawberries (45 calories)
2 eggs cooked with Pam spray (140 calories)
yogurt (100 calories)

Snack:
Banana: 110 calories

Lunch:
2 slices WHOLE WHEAT toast 180 calories (depends on brand)
1 T. peanut butter 90 calories
1 c. skim milk 80 calories

Dinner:
Grilled chicken breast and a large salad 400 calories (calories depends on amount of veggies, etc.)

Snack:
Something small and sweet since you have done well all day-like a small pudding cup, 4 Hershey Kisses, etc. 100 calories

Total: 1245 calories average


This is just an example. If you starve yourself and have 500 calorie days, what you basically are doing is setting yourself up for a binge later on-because you are hungry.

Proper diet, and exercise equal fit and healthy. We are here if you need us.

Mami - hope you're still around. All these ladies have some great advice for losing weight in the most effective manner. In college, I basically starved myself, eating under 1000 calories a day and easily burning that many playing sports and exercising. Yeah, I lost weight.....but I also got mono because my immune system was not able to function properly, lost my thick hair, and constantly had muscle cramps from severe vitamin and mineral defeciencies (sp?). As soon as I started eating again, my body freaked - I gained all the weight back over time, plus more, and my hair is now thin and fine instead of being so thick. Now my body doesn't want to lose weight, because I mistreated it so badly, even though now I'm doing it heathfully (reduced calorie, only whole grains, no sugar or white flour/pasta/rice, and exercise most days of the week).

If you crash diet, then you will eventually gain back the weight, and your health will suffer. You'll lose water weight and muscle, and your arms will "flab" more, not less. But if you aim for toning what you've got and eating healthfully, you'll lose fat and build muscle, which further burns fat, and your arms will be lean and tight.

You can do it, girl!