What are some healthy ways to lose this extra weight?

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spwwhitmer
spwwhitmer Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am a teenager and the way I have always lost weight was just not eating, now I am trying to be more healthy and nicer to my body so I was just wondering ways that I could lose weight without starving myself.

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  • TracyL963
    TracyL963 Posts: 90 Member
    edited March 8
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    The first step is to choose to lose the weight slower. This will still give you a decent number of calories.
    Next, make sure you are eating protein rich foods. Add some healthy fats and get a decent amount of fiber too.

    Exercise is good for your health and burns some calories......calories earned are a reward. Strength training (a moderate deficit, and good protein numbers) can help you keep muscle. Muscle is healthy. Cardiovascular exercise is good for your heart. Find something you enjoy doing so you can make it a part of your routine if it's not already.

    At the top of most discussion categories there are stickies. Check out the getting started topics for lots of information:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 13,625 Member
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    spwwhitmer wrote: »
    I am a teenager and the way I have always lost weight was just not eating, now I am trying to be more healthy and nicer to my body so I was just wondering ways that I could lose weight without starving myself.

    First, don't starve yourself. Eat enough to fuel your body!

    Second, set reasonable goals. No more than about 0.5% of your body weight per week; a little more if you have an awful lot to lose.

    Use the "Guided Setup" here on MFP. Be honest. Then use that as your calorie goal. Try to eat that amount, not less than that amount. Be as close as you can every day and especially on a weekly basis.

    Log all your food. Log honestly. Log completely. Log accurately. Also log your exercise. That will add calories to your base goal. Eat those too!

    Build habits you will continue forever. This is a far better way than trying to quickly lose weight then go back to old habits because.... that's what you've done before, and you can see the pitfall.

    Don't starve yourself. You can damage your body long-term.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,943 Member
    edited March 9
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    Tbh depends on starting point and age.

    Worst decision re weight in my life was dieting when I was a teen and barely overweight--but more chubby than the rest of the pack.

    The classic eat the least you can while exercising the most you can thing leading to, and over summer break with great results. Followed by the classic regain path over the next winter back in school.

    Would have been incredibly better off to not have reduced calories but just concentrating on avoiding double meals and "obligatory" family meals when not hungry because I had already eaten something else. Or even better off by adjusting the eating of the something else which mostly tended to be junk food and candy. And possibly dealing with stress eating which was already taking place (recognizing it and dealing with the mental aspect)

    If the op hasn't finished growing yet, the act of physical growing also requires the availability of a reserve of calories to take place optimally.

    There is a reason MFP was not envisioned as suitable for younger than legal adults.

    The mental aspect and relationship between food, mind, and body image during brain and body development is a mine field.

    We can barely hack that as adults under less of an influence of multiple levels of hormones and just dealing with the negative mental seeds we plant in our teens and then spend decades wrestling with.

    Let your body grow. Try to eat semi regular nutritious meals. Avoid extra junk and empty calories. Don't get obsessed with perfection or resign to despair. Gently manage but don't obsess. A slow direction is better than a sharp correction...

    I'll go away now....
  • StruggleBusDriver
    StruggleBusDriver Posts: 2 Member
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    I've learned that it's best to lean into the advice that best fits your personality; you have to outsmart yourself. For me, I'm wired to do things the easy way which tells me that I'm not going to take a whole lot of time to make good food choices before I leave for work, I won't meal prep, and I can't be trusted to workout at home while I'm trying to wind down. I'll lie to myself for a few weeks like I will, but I know deep down that it won't last. To combat this, I make sure the easiest things to grab are also healthy (a banana, a bunch of grapes, and an instant oatmeal packet for breakfast, leftovers from dinner for lunch) and I workout during the workday or immediately after work before I've had enough time to sit down because motivation is fleeting but routine is reliable.

    I also know I love office supplies so I got myself a personal planner where I write down my goals, workout plans, weigh-ins, etc to get myself more excited about my health goals.

    And ultimately, I try to be flexible because I'm a completely different person depending on how motivated I am that day. If it's a high motivation day, maybe I'll go the extra mile on a workout or resist snacking and if it's a low motivation day I let myself do the bare minimum on my workout and I'll snack on that piece of cheesecake in the back of the fridge that's been eyeballing me. Basically, "high motivation" me writes a whole lot of checks that "low motivation" me just doesn't have the energy to cash.

    Unfortunately, there's not a one-size-fits-all hack when it comes to losing weight. You'll see all kinds of conflicting advice online and literally none of it worked for me until I took inventory of what is actually manageable for me every single day and what is just the "high motivation" me talking.
  • Hismione
    Hismione Posts: 11 Member
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    You can easily add more exercise by parking further away and taking the stairs. Additionally, when you unload the dishes or put them away walk around the house or to the front door and back between every dish or couple silverware. I dry them by hand as I do it. 20 steps per dish or so x 30 is 600 steps. These sound silly but it adds up.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,878 Member
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    You just need to make the right food choices.Teens shouldn’t restrict calories however they need good choices. Normal teen diets are usually a lot of junk food and fast food. Get away from this and concentrate more on Whole Foods, lean meat and fish, veggies etc.

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