18 year old looking to lose weight and also has a question

forrestfire

For most of my life I have been an averagely weighted person, maybe a little bit under weight (2 1/2 years ago I was 5 foot 5 inches and weighed around 125 lbs). It was around when i turned 16 that I started to see a rapid and i mean rapid weight gain. In a matter of 6 months i gained 50 lbs. The only thing that I could think that would cause this is my blood pressure medicine (high blood pressure has been a problem for me since i was 10, for me it's just genetics not related to weight. I couldn't think of a reason because I was on the dive team at school so i had some form of workout everyday, food intake wasn't the best at all but it was average for a teenager. I also did a lot of work around the house such as yard work in 100 degree weather and i've helped 4 people move in a year. So exercise still never helping. now 3 years later I have lost a bit of weight (from what I don't know) and i'm looking to find ways to maybe loose a bit more weight. I currently weigh in at 166 lbs. I know for a fact that the weight gain isn't from muscle just because of people pointing it out to me, one of them being my girlfriend of 2 1/2 years. So i've recently started eating healthier foods and now i'm trying to stop one of my worse habits which is eating late at night. So lets see how long it will take until I get back to a regular weight. Exercise is hard for me since I spend most of my time at school or at my 2 jobs (one of which is labor intensive and includes me lifting 100 lb speakers 4 feet up). I've dusted off and fixed my dads old cycle. It's hard to find motivation.

My question though is this program seems only to tell you how much calories to intake (1800 a day for me). So how do you know how much to work out and what not. Am i supposed to burn off 2400 calories a day then only eat 1800 or something, this is a bit confusing to me. Hopefully someone can answer it.

Sarawoods

if you look under the exercise tab it tells you how many mins a day and how many cals a weeks and such, well mine does, yours probably does to

anubis609

www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

All shall be revealed...

red01angel

This will help explain exactly how MFP works. Good luck

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition

Elzecat

At your age and with a genetic medical condition, you should probably get some more guidance from your doctor. You are probably still growing so your needs are likely very different than other men on the site. Good luck!

creativekitty13

Hey there!

It will tell you the NET calorie amount you should be eating in order to lose x amount per week.

Example: If it has you eating 1800 calories to lose .5 pounds per week without exercising, then it's 1800 calories that you'll want to aim for. If you are working out and burning calories on top of that, then you will be adding more calories to what you're eating. Say you burn 400 calories one night at your job. In order to stick around 1800 calories you'll obviously have to eat 400 more since you burned some.

Look for the net calorie intake, assuming you put how many calories you'd like to burn a day (based on how many days you put to workout each week, etc).

Also, remember that at the beginning, eating less makes more sense because you want to lose faster, and for a week or two that is fine, but as your body grows accustomed to working out, it will start storing the calories/fat and doing what is called "starvation mode" because you're not eating enough. So make sure you're feeding it enough. Good luck!

forrestfire

At your age and with a genetic medical condition, you should probably get some more guidance from your doctor. You are probably still growing so your needs are likely very different than other men on the site. Good luck!

i did talk to my doctor and they sent in a nutritionist in, and all they said is exercise some and eat better foods
Not really the most detailed advice. lol.

Hey there!

It will tell you the NET calorie amount you should be eating in order to lose x amount per week.

Example: If it has you eating 1800 calories to lose .5 pounds per week without exercising, then it's 1800 calories that you'll want to aim for. If you are working out and burning calories on top of that, then you will be adding more calories to what you're eating. Say you burn 400 calories one night at your job. In order to stick around 1800 calories you'll obviously have to eat 400 more since you burned some.

Look for the net calorie intake, assuming you put how many calories you'd like to burn a day (based on how many days you put to workout each week, etc).

Also, remember that at the beginning, eating less makes more sense because you want to lose faster, and for a week or two that is fine, but as your body grows accustomed to working out, it will start storing the calories/fat and doing what is called "starvation mode" because you're not eating enough. So make sure you're feeding it enough. Good luck!

Thanks! It just seemed a bit confusing to me when I first started using it. When you are told "oh hey eat this much and you'll be fine" it's a bit confusing. lol.