Young adult girls trying to lose weight

As long as the goal weight is healthy, I don't see any issue with people wanting to lose just a little bit of weight for aesthetic reasons. If I feel better with myself 6 lbs lighter and it's a healthy weight then why not?

I agree with this. Yes, my goal size/weight is about what it was when I was 17 or 18. Am I being unrealistic? Nah, I don't think so. It's a perfectly healthy size/weight for someone my height and frame size, so I think my goal is good. In fact, I'm trying on my prom dress at the end of this week to see if it fits again before my 10 year high school reunion (silly challenge my best friend from high school and I decided to take on).

The 20lbs I gained between ages 17 and 21 had nothing to do with me growing, they had a lot to do with me being in college, eating like crap, and drinking beer all the time. And the 70lbs I gained while I was pregnant...well...cheeseburgers and ice cream.

I agree with you. The longer I'm on here, the more I see 18 year old girls and even younger girls who just fudge their age to sign up. It absolutely breaks my heart, especially because most of them are perfectly normal and beautiful in the first place.

I wonder if it's harder on girls these days then when I was a teen. I definitely thought I was fat when I was a teenager, even though I wasn't, but I never was pushed so far to do anything about it. I just kind of disliked my body.

Def not trying to be insulting, but maybe trying to get healthy/lose weight in a healthy manner, or just trying to accept someone's own body image would save girls like me from dealing with weight issues our entire lives, or even having to be on MFP when we're older. All I want is to actually accept my body, one day at a time. And when I'm finally "an adult" I can be a good example to my kids, not one who is obsessed with food or weight.

I've seen both sides, but I would say when in doubt, give the benefit of the doubt. Don't dismiss our age group just because of our age.

The 20lbs I gained between ages 17 and 21 had nothing to do with me growing, they had a lot to do with me being in college, eating like crap, and drinking beer all the time.

I bet this is the case with most people who gain in their early 20s but they won't admit it.

To OP, there's no "second puberty" in the early 20s. People just don't learn or know how to cook properly and don't bother to exercise.

My horrible coworker started encouraging her 17 year old daughter to lose weight and go on fad diets because she grew an hourglass figure that included big hips and boobs. She's not fat, she just has a figure. My coworker is extremely petite.

I want to punch this woman so bad.

There's a major difference between developing an hourglass figure and getting fat, though. My daughter, and I love her to death, gained quite a bit in her teens and it was not puberty. She got fat. She ate a lot of junk and didn't move much. I didn't encourage any fad diets and I tried to be very gentle about it when I finally said something, but she was 5'4" and in the 180s at 17 years old, all in the belly.

She's taken it upon herself to eat healthier, watch calories and exercise and has had amazing success. Sometimes young people are just overweight and it has nothing to do with hormones.

Also, one can have an hourglass figure and still be petite.

OP, you have a great point. However, I think what those girls SHOULD focus on is just maintaining a healthy life style. They may never fit into those size 00 jeans again because they have hips. Hips are good, they're a sign of being at a good age for child bearing and add beautiful natural curves. 10-20lbs because your body is changing isn't a problem. But it's nice to see that some girls take that as "hmm, I should worry about my health" instead of "I need my size 2!"

I was saving up for the surgery where you get fat from one part of your body and put it into your butt -.

No, no, no. You don't want to add fat to your glutes, add muscle. You'd be saddened to know that your body could simply choose to absorb the extra fat you have injected in. It's a lot of pain and risk for little to no results.

Deadlifts, squats, lunges. These will improve the size and composition of your glutes more than surgery ever will. Your glutes are a major muscle, not fat.

if you are 100lbs overweight then there's no doubt that you need to start losing, but in the smaller margin cases people may have just developed as the OP says.

Thing is, how would you know? unless you knew your waist/hip/bodyfat etc measurements before, how would you know what change has occurred?

Lots of points in this thread! Not enough time right now but easiest first-

If you gain hip size via fat distribution or weight gain, then your pants WILL fit different and you will notice hah.

You wouldn't. But you would notice a different shape and if it were bone (which is uinlikely to develop that late unless you started puberty at 16 or 17 -- some do), the scale wouldn't change.

Young girl, young adult- pointless distinction and totally irrelevant to the question!

Two experiences:

First, my neice, whom we had for a year living with us. She was like 9 when we had her. Getting visibly pudgy and overweight. Two problems: she ate too much, and didn't exercise. So when she lived with us, we would serve everyone a normal portion of food (probably too many calories by true portion sizes, but it definately wasn't starving her- it's what we were all eating!) and then we would put the food away. She was still hungry, but we made a deal- go out for a walk/play with the other kids, and then if she was still hungry, she was allowed to eat again. Her stomach just wasn't registering that she was full, and by the time she did something else, she completely forgot about wanting to eat again. So we sort of tricked her into eating less and getting more exercise, and it worked. She grew in height during that year but lost enough weight to get back into her jeans that she has just "grew out of" (waistline pudge). We also kept the cookies/snacks/sugary foods totally out of the cupboard to make the mix of food only normal, healthy foods.

Second, my daughter, whom we would have not considered to be fat by any means, but whom went on a diet with me. It wasn't a diet, per se, but a way of eating. The program I was on said to eat very slowly and to recognize when your stomach is getting full. It also said not to eat if you weren't hungry, and that some people only eat once or twice a day, and can be just fine. As I did this program, my dd took it upon herself to adopt these policies for herself. We didn't force her to eat if she wasn't hungry, and allowed her to choose her own portion sizes. She lost 5 pounds, grew in height and gained it back, lost another 5 pounds, and then did another growth spurt and gained it back, lost another 5 pounds and then grew again. The end result is that she is now 5-6 inches taller, but weighs no more than she did 2 or 3 years ago. Seeing the pictures of her back then, she had a much more rounded face. She was storing fat on her body, but now, my gosh, she is slim and sexy. She's happy with herself now (age 15), and she plans to keep her eating habits for life. As parents, we had to get over the fear that she would starve herself, but she's definately not doing that. She's just eating reasonable! I could learn a lot from her, and still do. She reminds me when I slip into old habits again. Thank goodness she learned to break them early- because as an adult, I struggle to break a lifetime of bad habits.

So, to the young members reading this, I would definately say DO NOT DIET, but rather change your habits to be something that you can live with for a lifetime. It is never too early to recognize the difference between good habits and bad habits!!! Learn to distinguish bad habits, like eating 2nds at dinner, or constantly eating junk food, or not getting out of the house to play, that will pack on weight over time. Good things to learn: eating slowly to train your tummy to recognize when it's full, or only eating when you are truely hungry, or learning to move and exercise more, is something that will carry you for a lifetime. The benefit now is a sexier body, the benefit later is that you won't have to undo fat and bad habits later.

I think there's a difference between a small weight gain, and a weight gain where it is no longer healthy.
I am 19, and 5'3", and currently I weigh 228 pounds. It's not a question of fad diets for me, I need to actually lose weight because I can develop health problems.
I know and see what you mean, with girls that I'm friends with that are perfectly healthy weights and they are obsessed with losing weight, but there's a definite difference between pubescent changes and an unhealthy weight loss.

The 20lbs I gained between ages 17 and 21 had nothing to do with me growing, they had a lot to do with me being in college, eating like crap, and drinking beer all the time.

I bet this is the case with most people who gain in their early 20s but they won't admit it.

To OP, there's no "second puberty" in the early 20s. People just don't learn or know how to cook properly and don't bother to exercise.

yup. this was my problem for sure! just takes a lot for people to open their eyes and change their ways