At a loss with weight loss!

[Lostwithoutyou081280]

I'm 18 5" 3 and i weigh about 135 pounds.

A couple of months ago i'd say 4-6 months ago.... more like.. i weight 110 pounds.

I gained 25 pounds in less than half a year.
This scared me because at 5" 2 a year ago i weighed in at 100 pounds. I am very short and my body isn't porportional, i eat A LOT. i love FOOD.

I have a gym membership but i dont know how to go about changing my diet and working out so that i lose weight. HELP!!!!

[Ravsoma]

Hmm. We're the same age and almost the same height and our weight is almost the same, too. Let me try to help a bit.

Drink lots of water. I mean it. Lots. I actually drink 12-16 glasses a day, but you don't have to be that extreme. Eat little meals throughout the day and make sure they're balanced: a little bit of fat, lots of protein, some carbs, some sodium, fiber, ya know? If you get hungry in between, snack on some broccoli, or an apple, but drink water, too!

When I'm at the gym I usually ride the bike for an hour, the Elliptical for 30 minutes, and lift some weights for 30 minutes. This might be a little too much if you're just starting out, so I would suggest walking on the treadmill for 20-30 minutes a day. After 2 weeks, you should see a little change. ^_^

[jhonny]

change your entire eating routines

[akb1183]

I've found small changes little by little is the best way to get going! I stopped drinking soft drinks and began drinking more water a couple of months ago. It hasn't been a dramatic weight loss but that one change has caused me to drop 5 lbs. And this is all I did. I recently gave up potato chips I eat at lunch with my sandwich and replaced it with baby carrots. In my opinion it's small life style changes, little by little, that will ultimately help you lose and MAINTAIN your weight. It might take longer than some fad diet but the weight loss will be more likely to stick this way. Hope this helps!

[BethAnne]

If you don't eat an evening meal or snack, you will lose. Most of us don't need late night snacking and late night eating is when we are most likely to put on weight.

Eat a good breakfast, good lunch but skip dinner. Allow about six hours between breakfast and lunch. Do this for a week and see if you don't lose. At your age, skipping dinner only, I'd lose ten pounds in one week. Plus I slept better at night.

What the other girls said about drinking water, less soda--all excellent advice.

[Lostwithoutyou081280]

wow ^_^;; Thanks so much guys. I never thought people would respond to my comments this fast. Thanks and i willt ry the advice you have given me.

[crystalr0w3]

You can still eat the way you do by replacing junk foods and fatty foods of fruits and vegetables. You can eat loads of it but it won't make you fat. You won't get lost at this type of diet but win a healthy body.

[stroutman81]

If you don't eat an evening meal or snack, you will lose. Most of us don't need late night snacking and late night eating is when we are most likely to put on weight.

This is actually false.

Metabolism doesn't vary drastically from morning to night.

Even if it did, if you're in a net caloric deficit at the end of the day, you're not going to store fat. Think of it like this:

If your body needs 2000 calories to maintain itself and you took in 1800 calories for the day all in the PM hours, how would you store fat? There's no energy to store?

Thermodynamics apply to everyone.

[stroutman81]

Look, the first order of business is to understand the role nutrition/diet plays in weight gain, loss and maintenance.

The foundation of understanding this is calories. You don't gain weight unless you're eating more calories (energy) than your body needs. Fat is stored energy so if there's an excess coming in via food... it's going to get stored.

An obvious question would than be, "how do I know how many calories I need?"

There are a bunch of ways to calculate caloric requirements. There are various formulas and calculators you can find online even.

Or you could simply multiply your bodyweight by 14-15 calories per pound. That's a good estimate of maintenance calories... maintenance being the point where calories in = calories out and weight is maintained.

Once you figure out your maintenance, it's a matter of eating less than this on a consistent basis. Our bodies need a given amount of energy to perform bodily actions and activity. If we eat less than this, it needs to make up for that shortage and it does so by tapping into its reserves (fat).

You don't want to go crazy starving yourself... but eating 20-30% below maintenance is a good start. From there, track your progress with the scale, a tape measure and pictures every couple of weeks. If things aren't heading in the right direction, it's not reason to get bent out of shape. Simply adjust your intake accordingly. Keep in mind this is a touch and feel process. You don't pick a random intake and expect it to work automatically.

So does this mean you have to start counting calories?

Not necessarily.

You can, if you'd like. That would give you the most certainty. Or you could simply make smarter food choices. Much of the processed food out there nowadays is very calorically dense and doesn't satiate you well at all. This combination makes it very easy to over-consume food/calories. By simply eating as naturally as you can (avoiding as much processed as you can) it'll self-regulate calories in a way. For some this is enough. For others, they still end up over eating and need to be more rigid by tracking calories.

If you choose to track, I highly suggest picking up a digital food scale and signing up for a free account an online diet journal.

Eating balanced meals of whole, natural foods is a good place to start. By balanced, I mean balanced in the nutrients carbs, fats and proteins. These lists are by no means complete but just to give you an idea:

Protein - Chicken/turkey breast, lean ground beef, top round or flank steak, pork tenderloin, fish, low/no fat dairy, nuts, eggs, protein powder

Fats - Extra virgin olive oil, fish oil, flax, nuts, avocados, olives

Carbs - Plenty of fibrous veggies and fruits, whole wheat bread and pasta, rice, oats, yams, potatoes

I could ramble on for pages but I've probably already said too much. Any questions?

[stroutman81]

For the sake of clarity, moderation removed a couple of free links that provided tools you could use to calculate caloric needs and track food intake.

If you'd like them, say so and I'll PM them to you.