I'm very new here.. I've been struggling to lose weight for quite a while now, and I think it would help to have a buddy. I'm only 15 years old, and am overweight. Not too much overweight, but still overweight. I'm not quite 5'2" and weight in about 135 pounds. That may not seem like a lot, but I actually asked a doctor what my ideal weight should be and he said 110 pounds.. and he's a doctor! So really I'm trying to lose 25 pounds I'm trying to do so by next summer, which seems healthy enough for me. That's less than 2 pounds a week. I don't care if you need to lose 10 pounds or 100 pounds, 12 years old or 30 years old.. BUT a messenger of some kind (AIM, Yahoo, MSN) would be nice. Thanks

First, unless your doctor actually told you after a series of body fat indexing tests that you needed to lose 25 lbs, then you probably don't. There are a lot of factors in determining a good weight and someone just saying it, Doctor or not, doesn't not make it healthy for you personally. I agree with you that slow weight loss is the best and healthiest way, but I also think you should know that two pounds a week is unrealistic. You might lose that in water weight in the begining, but as the weeks progress you won't be dropping that much that fast. Really overweight people can lose that much that fast but at your weight you won't. You should stive for more like a pound or even half a pound a week.
Also keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat so if you start working out and build muscle, it will actually weigh more even though it might LOOK smaller.
Be safe, cut the sweets, soda, and junk food and eat healthy, balanced meals and add some fitness to your routine and you should be looking how you want in a few short months.

Peccavi -

Hello! I understand your struggle - I am 5'3" and currently weigh about 140. I can tell you from experience with body fat indexing, etc. and my own appearance, my ideal is at about 115-120. 110 seems a little low to me - I would really question that if I were you. Also, my experience has also been that while 2lbs a week soudns reasonable enough, unless you basically starve (very unhealthy) 1-1.5 pounds is about all you can hope for.

However, I am also in Texas, in the north Houston area, and would love to be your buddy. I am 20 years old and, as I said before, 5'3" and about 140. I am starting the new diet/exercise plan on sunday. I used to be a member here, but lost my internet connection for a few months until I recently moved. My AIM and yahoo messenger name is lauren2pink. Feel free to IM me whenever you see me on.

Are you saying I don't need to lose any weight? Or that 25 pounds is too much? That's just my goal, and if I actually start looking the way I want, then I'll be happy with that.

Actually.. I already do know this. But I also know as a person how much weight I can lose a week (healthily) and I know that I can get down to about 125 losing two pounds a week, and then around 117 losing 1.5 a week, and around 113 losing a pound a week, and after that, if I even think I need to lose more, it will be pretty slow. I've dieted before. I know my body. Thanks for the concern though.

Thank you again for your concern. I've taken health classes and I know quite well that muscle weighs more than fat, but I actually have quite a lot of muscle built up and as I am a girl, I know I'm not really going to bulk up any further. I just want to get rid of the fat COVERING the muscle.

I do know what I'm doing, but I really appreciate your post enigma74!

By the way lauren2pink, I added you to my buddy list

I wasn't judging, sorry if I sounded harsh. I was mearly trying to express the fact that no two people fit into the same mold. I know I have seen charts and graphs and tables that say I should weigh 115 for my height and build but I know from experience that I am weak and tired and just generally crappy feeling at anything below 120. I fear for young women who have somewhat unrealistic goals based on something that one person said or what they've seen/read somewhere. I wasn't trying to be condescending, either, just hoping to confirm things you were probably already thinking.

As a side note: Most doctors aren't trained to assess weight/obesity risks on anything more than BMI and hip/waist ratios. We have standard formulas that can tell what an "ideal" weight is, calculated from age, gender, and height, but it doesn't take in account the things mentioned above, like muscle mass or body frame. Your doctor probably just used the formula, or calculated from an ideal BMI of, say, 23 or so.

While the body-fat indexing techniques may be a better fit to a true "ideal weight", I am unsure of how truly scientific the formulas used in those calculations are. Unlike physics, where formulas can be completely based on theory, medical calculations tend to be the sum totals of thousands of patients of many years of statistic-gathering, to form an equation that gives you a line that approximates the middle of that hodgepodge of data

Because the body-fat index measurement isn't widely practiced in hospitals and physician offices, there is much less data to draw an inference from. Relatively speaking, the formulas are cruder than those for the BMI; thus, while the body fat measurement may give a more accurate assessment of current body status, the formula used to calculate ideal body weight from it may be no more valid than using the stock BMI.

Just food for thought