I am 19 years old and have always been one of the bigger in the bunch. I will be graduating from college in April, and would really like to start my career differently.
My boyfriend (who wants to get engaged as soon as i graduate... i'm making him wait. haha) is a lot smaller than me and it really bothers me...

So many times i have said i was going to get in shape, but have lost motivation pretty quickly. This time I want to do it right, and really get a routine that I can stick to and that will really help me.

So what I am asking is.. Any suggestions in eating, exercising, etc?

Also one of my concers... I do have some stretch marks (Lower back, arms, thighs, and a few on my lower stomach) I'm wondering for those of you who have lost weight, what happens to your skin? Does it get flabby and wrinkly or is it easy to tighten up?

PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!

being bigger than your boyfriend is VERY frustrating. im currently in that position.. sort of. i dont weigh more than him and he has a good 5 inches on me, but im definitely the FAT one.

stretch marks dont go away, dont believe the commercials. as far as how your skin will tighten up, that sort of depends on genetics. you're young so you have a much better chance of it looking good.

coming up with a solid plan is your first mission! i think youll find that most people in this forum are calorie counters. if you don't know anything about calorie counting, feel free to ask! im not going to go into a big long explanation because you might already know and then itd just be annoying of me.

you're very young. now is the time to do it! so, for now, do you have any sort of plan or are you just looking for ideas?

I am currently looking for ideas and the best way to go about everything. And no. lol I don't know much about calorie counting.

Find things you LIKE to do, this way you will stick with them much more easily. For instance, I see no point in pedalling on a bike in a gym for 1 hour, because to me, "biking" comes with "going from A to B", and anything else is useless. But I have absolutely no qualms biking 4 x 15 minutes to and back from work 5 days a week, because this I can process and enjoy. I'm much less liable to give it up "just because I don't feel like doing today... and tomorrow... and the next ten years while I'm at it."

Same with food, you can lose on foods you like, even though this may demand a little bit of mental gymnastics at first, and of course replacing junk with healthy versions (I suppose you can lose on junk food too, but you'd have to eat very little of it, and it wouldn't be healthy at all anyway). If you constantly feel deprived and frustrated, you won't stick with it for long; it'd just be torture. So we have to find ways to incorporate those changes in our lifestyles (not just "go on a diet") for them to stick for good.

I know, this seems pretty basic and evident, but trust me, at first it wasn't *such* an evidence for me. ^_^;

Welcome to the forum! It is great that you want to make healthier changes in your life now. Don't worry about stretch marks or lose skin right now. Stretch marks fade and your young so your skin should tighten up.

There is a ton of information about many different food plans on this site. Pick a plan that fits in your lifestyle and you can follow long term. I chose calorie counting because it is free and flexible. It allows me to eat almost anything I wanted as long as it fits within my calorie range for the day and there are ton of free apps out there to help you track your food. Give up the sugary drinks and drink lots and lots of water.

Incorporate some exercise into your weekly routine. You do not have to join an expensive gym try to walk more, use the stairs more, download videos off of YouTube or Hulu.com to work out to. There are a lot of things you can to do with spending a ton of money.

Lastly, if you have a bad meal, a bad day, heck, a bad food week. Do NOT let this be a reason to throw in the towel. Get back on track at the next meal. You can do this!!!
Best of luck to you!

Welcome!

It can be difficult to give advice to start out. Different things work for different people. Personally, I find great success calorie counting and I like myfitnesspal.com (if you were to join there are gobs of 3FC people over there you can add for support -- my username is stephanie1133) over several other websites I've tried. It's very individual, but the reason I like calorie counting is because it is flexible. Don't deprive yourself, you can eat foods you enjoy and still stay in a caloric deficit! If it's the quantity of food that you enjoy (for me that's a big one), choose lower calorie foods that you can eat more of in volume.

My only concrete advice would be to make a commitment and rely upon that, and not motivation. Motivation comes and goes. I started looking at it kind of like a relationship. You wouldn't give up on a relationship because you had one rocky day (or week, or month for that matter), so don't give up on yourself. Be forgiving of yourself for slip ups.

Don't let the scale dictate your success (take measurements and pictures at least monthly!!!).

And as far as exercise I reccommend weight training!!! You don't even need a gym for this!

I read somewhere in this forum that stretch marks should be considered as battle scars. I was told I'd have lots of loose skin when I'm done but hey, wrinkly abs still looks a thousand times better than flabs

One tip is to eat your calories and not drink them. Stick with black coffee, unsweetened tea (black, green, oolong, white, red- yes, I am a tea lover!), soda water, reg water and maybe some diet soda. I like to drink hot tea with a meal or right after to help get full and be satisfied on a little less food.

Good luck!

I'm also a new dieter (starting again from my last diet which was years ago). My plan is to make one change at a time and when I can handle that change, I add a new one. I am not a motivated person either so I am taking it slow (but this also means weight loss is slow too). For example, my first plan was to stop eating out because I was doing that about 4-5 times a week. Once I could handle that, I starting cutting out sugar. Once I done that, I cut out bread. So, now I am a point where I am eating mostly natural foods. I hope to move to Paleo or calorie counting. Good luck!