Teenage Eating Tips

mibro18

Hi,

I'm working on trying to lose weight ~ I walk about 2 miles to and from school (4 miles overall each day) and am in a gym class, but I'm having trouble balancing calories in with calories out. I sometimes justify eating more on days where I do more intense cardio in my gym class but I'm trying to figure out a way to not get panicked about what I'm eating and counting my calories to the point where I'm triggering my OCD. Any advice?

- Woeful Weight Loss Seeker

MichelleSilverleaf

Yes, talk to your parents or a professional about your concerns. Teenagers especially should not be worrying about weight until they've finished growing at least (barring actual medical conditions). Practice sensible eating sure, but counting calories? Save that for your 20s, if you even need it.

NovusDies

Even if you need to lose weight you can't make this your world right now. You need to do things you enjoy. If you haven't already learn to play an instrument.

I love the way you did the math for us though by telling us that 2 miles both ways = 4 miles... I am seriously loling.

ETA: I wasn't being sarcastic. I really did laugh.

Lounmoun

mibro18 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm working on trying to lose weight ~ I walk about 2 miles to and from school (4 miles overall each day) and am in a gym class, but I'm having trouble balancing calories in with calories out. I sometimes justify eating more on days where I do more intense cardio in my gym class but I'm trying to figure out a way to not get panicked about what I'm eating and counting my calories to the point where I'm triggering my OCD. Any advice?

- Woeful Weight Loss Seeker

Talk to your parents and doctor about your concerns. You are likely still growing so using information and calculators made for adults is not appropriate.
Figure out how many calories you should have.
If you are not overweight or underweight don't worry about counting calories.
https://www.eatright.org/food/nutrition/dietary-guidelines-and-myplate/how-many-calories-does-my-teen-need

seltzermint555

I hope this isn't some sort of violation to say here, I honestly don't know, but I feel like if you are a teenager and technically categorized as overweight it would be a GREAT idea to use calorie counting on this site to see how it goes. If you lose too much or too quickly, up the calories.

I wish I'd had this tool when I was an overweight teenager. Yes it's important to make sure you're getting adequate nutrition as you may or may not have finished growing and your brain & body are still in development. But I think it's downright silly to say that one should just focus on other things for their entire teens. Then what happens if you hit 20+ and are very overweight? Just more work to do then!

A friend's son was getting very chubby at age 12-13 (he needed men's XL shirts) and he started taking nightly walks, drinking water instead of soda, and eating more vegetables. Now he's 15 and while part of it can be attributed to another growth spurt, he's wearing men's M shirts and looks/feels great. His grandmother thinks it's terrible that he lost some weight at that age but I think he's set himself up to be a healthier adult and take charge of his health & fitness. I think it's awesome and I'm very proud of this kid.

andreaen

What is your height and weight now? And are you a girl or a boy?