You see, I have problems with my weight and my parents nag at me all the time so, does anybody know what to do to lose weight?


(Eze IS aware of that she sounds like an idiot)

I can give you tips for losing weight, but in order to give you proper advice, I'm going to need a little more information.

Age:
Weight: (In kg please)
Desired Weight: (also in kg)
Length: (In Centimeters)
Lifestyle: (Food, activities)
Financial Picture: (ie, can you afford going to a gym, or will it be home based?)
Goal: (Do you simply want to loose weight, or do you want to gain some muscle mass as well?)

If you could answer these, I'd be able to give you some good advice other than "go jogging" :grin:

Age:12, turning 13 in few days
Weight:57 kgs
Desired Weight:53-54, less if okay
Length:159,2 cm
Lifestyle:Trying to eat healthy stuff, sometimes chocolate and other bad junk kicks in along with extra fat foods. Lifting weights a bit and walking too.
Financial Picture:Erm. Home based. I just don't have time to go.
Goal:To lose weight and gain some muscle mass as well, if possible.

Hope, that it helped.

:D

*trots off to exercise*

Well you can go biking to school instead of walking..

Actually, walking fast is probably better than biking, since it takes longer than the bike but still keeps your heart rate up.

Eze, I almost posted this last week also! I'd been liftign for years, but after my wife had a baby and my work got more stressful, the 5am workouts dropped off, while fast food picked up.

[ March 24, 2003, 17:44: Message edited by: Mathetais ]

They are nagging for no reason at all Eze, you are perfectly normal weighing. No reason at all for you to lose weight, atleast not now in the age you are with hormones putting things both here and there. If you still want to lose weight in 5 years do it then but as you are not overweight at all there is no need. Your parents are full of it...

Any serious exercise could harm your normal growth. The same applies to most diets. If you don't eat fatty food or sweets and do some modest degree of gymnastics you shouldn't have any problems with your weight. Perhaps climbing stairs instead of using elevators and lifts (that's what I do if I get 1-2 kg surplus ;) ), 30 minutes walk daily or other safe activities of this kind would be in order. Definitely not a gym.

You're 12, which means that your maximum heartrate is 208 beats/minute. (rough estimate) To burn fat properly you can choose between two run trainings. For both a heartrate counter would be desirable. Because you mentioned your parents nagging you about it, perhaps you can convince them to chip in for it?

First of all, start out slow. As you train more, your condition will go up, and you'll be able to train harder. The schedules I put up here might be too much. Don't be afraid to set your goal a little lower for the beginning. (If you set it lower, adjust the times, not the intensity. The intensity is put so that you burn fat.)

1) One long period run, with a lower intensity. You should walk this at an intensity which brings your heartrate up to 80% of it's max. (in your case being about 160-165 beats/minute.) Run at such an intensity for a period of 30-40 minutes.

2) A higher intensity run, over a shorter time, but with 1-4 repeats. The intensity should be at 90%. (roughly 180-185 beats/minute) Run at such an intensity for a period of 10-15 minutes. Then take a 5 minute break, in which you walk at a normal pace. Repeat the 10-15 minutes at 90% for about 1-4 times.

A heartrate counter will be very handy for these trainings, as it is hard to get a feel of how fast your heart is beating while running ;)

Lifestyle:Trying to eat healthy stuff, sometimes chocolate and other bad junk kicks in along with extra fat foods. Lifting weights a bit and walking too.Lifting weights at your age is a bad idea. It can hinder your growth, as said above. So if I were you, I'd concentrate on burning fat, instead of gaining musclemass.

Eating chocolate and junk food isn't necessarily bad. I'd suggest taking a break on it for your first three weeks of training. Once you see good progress with training, you can go back to eating it. (Note: with eating, I mean having it occasionally, not munching yourself full with it ;) ) I find it often better motivating if people can continue their normal habits (unless they seriously harm the trainingeffect with their habits) because else it will be a very radical change of lifestyle.

A tip: Find someone of a similar cardiovascular condition to run with you. This is much more motivating than to run alone.

Also, I forgot to ask of any special medical conditions. If you have any, contact your doctor to ask if that would go along with your training.

Edit: I threw this together in between school and dinner, so I'll check back later if everything I said actually makes sense ;) If you have any more questions, wishes or remarks, shoot. :D

how to lose weight
- live the lifestyle of Ghandi. You lose weight at the same time you gain mental enlightenment. How nice.

Thanks. BTW, my dad has already chipped in for a heartrate counter.

:)

*trots off*

Sigh, I feel like I'm the only kid in the world who has trouble -gaining- weight. Damn that high metabolism! Usual response from people is "Don't worry you'll fill out when you're 40" :)

I also wheigts too little. I am 1.66 and wheights only 47 KILOS! My g/f is 1.56 and wheights 45. I am extremely underwheghtied.(sp?)

And Eze, you don't wheights too much. Thats a absolutely normal wheight.

woow people are thin, here we would call it anorexia :spin:

But, I am 1,92 and weigh about 80, seems good enough

I also need to gain some weight and muscles...
I am 161 cm tall (Yeah, I thought I was 162...)and weigh 48 kilos. Ugh, my new year vow is to gain weigh til I'm 50 kg. I have already been up in 49,7 once! :)
And btw, my dad lost 40 kilos in 7 months!!!
Of course he found out he had diabetes, high colesterol (sp?) and hyperglycaemia.
(Yes, I checked the dictionary for that last word)

I should be good at this one.

I've been to the gym for some time now and I can say that going to the gym 4 times a week, 2h per time will not get rid of any fat at all. Yes that's right, not a single gram of it. It all depends on how you train of course, I build bodymass with lifting max weights, and that doesn't really enhance your constitution. Unless you're going to pay for gym monthly and get yourself a trainingprogram designed for fatloss, then this is not really that viable an option.

Some say aerobic is good. Problem with aerobic as well is that it is not as simple as some think. Being somewhat complicated, it requires determination, trouble, and time. And money, again. Also, both gym and aerobic are mainly for shaping your body. So basically much of the time you spend there is spent on shaping instead of mere fat loss. Which means, you need to do quite much aerobic to get rid of quite much fat.

Two friends of mine have been using those heart-rate thingies for some months now. They've gained some results, but mainly all they can do is give a nice sum of figures that are supposed to mean something when in fact your own eyes can tell you that it is really not the case. I'm not saying those things are useless. I am, however, saying that they can consume money and trouble and easily give off too positive an image of your progress. That's because every person I know of so far has confused the "relatively highest fat consumption" with "actually highest". Walking with a heart-rate of 130 will get you a 50-60% fat consumption of all calories that you burn. Compared to jogging with a heart-rate of 160 that probably burns around 40% of the energy consumed from fat. But practically jogging still consumes so much more energy that when compared straight to this walking, you'll see that jogging actually burns several times the fat that walking does, in the same amount of time. Only, it is harder, of course.

The answer to all your troubles are therefore two things: Diet, and jogging.

If you give up one, then you'll have to be twice as good at the other. I prefer 2/3:rds jogging and 1/3:rd diet.

Ditch the candy, you don't need that. If you think you do, then just don't think about it and refuse to have any for about one week. If you've made it that far it's simple as heck to last for another week. And after that you're usually free of all candylust. Observe what you eat. It *is* worth it to pay for those fat-less cheeses, sausages, yoghurt, etc. With the right sort of food ingredients you can eat as much as you ever want with 90% of the same taste that was there before, and you'll get around 30% of the fat you used to from your food. After around 1-2 weeks, the 10% loss to the taste of the food will disappear (or actually, added as bonus) as you won't even like that fatty taste anymore.

As for jogging. Don't think about how fast you go. Don't think about how far you go. Neither of those have nothing to do with it ever, and I mean *ever*, in your life. All that matters is the time. Just jog peacefully for as long as it starts to feel that you really can't go any further. Then just slow down to the lightest little hopping-step pace you can imagine. Proceed as such until you feel you can put up more speed again. All that you need to know is that any motion that keeps you sweaty and gets the breath going and feels in your body... for the duration of 20 minutes will then start burning fat. So 30 minutes of light jogging a day will make 10 minutes worth of fat-loss. The amount of that varies depending on your weight and age and the level of the strain.

There's this funny thing with heart-rate, you see. I have a jogger as a friend who can jog at fairly high speeds with a stable heart-rate of 120 per minute. According to the most usual information, you need a heart-rate of 130 to get the optimized fat-loss. Another friend of mine (one who is definitely not fat) walks, getting his heart-rate up to 130 per minute. I, myself, started jogging just two years ago while getting out from the army. And in less than a month I dropped 6-8 kilos off my weight (I had around 10 kilos of overweight before it) by jogging 3-4 times a week, 1h per time. And not once did I go for speedrecords... only for the 1h after which I could quit. 40 minutes worth of burning fat is a big thing.

Sorry for the novel. I have 10 times more stuff to say about this but I dare say this is enough.

Edit:

As for those of you who wish to gain weight. There's no other way to do it than going to the gym and start building bodymass. That is, if you don't want to start eating like an animal for no reason and getting all sorts of diseases later in your life. Not overweight does not = low cholesterole. Then there's this thing with the gym. It does literally take years for you to get any real results. I started with 3 times per week, 1,5-2h per time. In 6 months all I could see was some little added shape to my arms and breast. My strength had about doubled, but outter appearance had scarcely changed other than to my own eyes for scanning myself in front of the bathroom mirror (desperate, eh? :rolleyes: ). So going to the gym for mass building is NOT something you just do. It's a way of life. If you aren't prepared for that, then forget it.

Otherwise, I can tell you that you who cannot gain weight are better off than us who just can't help gaining it. I have to live each day knowing that unless i suffer from hunger, there is just no way I can remain a normal weight person without moving like a stupid animal each and every day. I know that when I hit 40 and I don't feel like running again, I'll be a swollen fat-ass in less than 2 months. Now that is definitely not something you'd want as it really is a hindrance to your health and social life.

I envy people who can eat normally and don't have to worry about getting fat, I have one for roommate.

[ March 24, 2003, 20:42: Message edited by: Foradasthar ]

Foradasthar:That is not a novel at all. You can shoot all stuff you have to say about it. LoL. I gave up the candy and didn't even eat the sweet thingy at school. YAY. And I only filled my plate once. YAY.


Go me.

LoL.

Eze, I'm no expert, but I do know that 57 kg isn't too much. That's 125.4 pounds (Canada is metric, I am Imperial!) For the first time in recorded history I agree with Joacqin -- you don't need to lose weight. Exercise away, that's great, but don't focus on your weight.

(I can rhyme, on a dime, anytime!)

Depaara is right. In all my hunger ;) I completely forgot to check the weight/height/age chart. You're fine. I don't know who's been saying to you that you're fat, but from what I can see statistically, you are fine.

Mild weight training - more reps with lighter weight, as opposed to the body building technique of few reps with heavy weights - is good for young women because weight-bearing exercise helps strengthen the bones against the future possibility of osteoporosis. Just make sure you get enough calcium.

I agree with the gist of Foradasthar's message: the only way to lose weight is to burn off more calories than you consume over the course of each day. There are two ways to burn calories:
1) Increase your basal metabolic rate so that your body simply burns more calories at rest.
2) Exercise.

Where I separate from Foradasthar's approach is the JOGGING. I hate running. I only run when I'm being chased (and if he's cute, I slow down). I would much rather ride a bike, or do step aerobics, or disco dance, or play pickup volleyball/basketball/soccer etc...

You know your body best. Find an activity you like and stick with it, so it becomes part of your life. If you don't ENJOY your exercise, you won't do it.

As far as diet goes, I've found that I crave sweets and junk food much less if I can stay away from them for a week or two. The first few days are the hardest!

[ March 25, 2003, 03:39: Message edited by: Rallymama ]

Eze, the first thing to do is just eat. Eat when you are hungry.

And excercise hard. Run, swim, you can bike (some; it doesn't work as many muscles as running or swimming).

If you do it correctly, sex can also work all the muscle groups.

Ej, she is 12, 13 at the end of this month :nono: :p

???
She's asking how to lose weight with that size? It's normal weight.

I am 170cm and 110kg.
That is a problem.

Faragon, i'm interested, how did you calculate her maxumum heartrate? And is it possible to go over it?

Rule of thumb for max heartrate is [220-Age]. Since this is just a general rule of thumb, yes it's possible to go over the result. Velcro does it all the time!

And I wouldn't have sex even if I were over 18 or something...

LoL.

Anyways people, thanks for all the stuff you've said.

You can't really say if she's overweight or not. No statistics ever fit a person, for they're always general figures of the stereotypical human, which is never what a normal stereotypical human is like. Only way to know if you're fat or not without going through an extensive medical examination is to see for yourself. So many teenage girls have problems with their brains and eyes when it comes to realistic views of themselves, that I can't promise this'll work. I knew I was fat when I was school-aged. Yet my parents did the favor of always saying that it's not true, I'm just sturdily built. It took a while before I learned to think with my own brains and do something about it. So like I said, if you can't trust yourself, then how can you trust another? And if you *can* trust yourself, then you don't need to ask another. :) ... or something.

Anyway, the rule of thumb about the heart-rate was already pointed above by formulamama. But as said, everyone is still some sort of an exception. I probably have some sort of troll blood in me for my so-far high immunity system and regeneration rate. Also, the same weirdness applies to my heart-rate. When I was 19, my normal heart-rate was around 90-100. I could easily get it over 220 and not really feel that weird. People thought that dangerous and sent me to some tests. Conclusion was that my condition was above the average, and even though my heart-rate jumped sky-high immediately, it also recovered back to normal far faster than it should have. So in the end they concluded that there was nothing to show that my high heart-rate should be dangerous, only my body reacts more quickly. Even now, still as a young person, I can get my heart-rate up to around 230 if I really, really want to. In about 1 minute. Even though I count myself among people who have a fairly good condition, mere walking brings my heart-rate to the same level a normal person would have while running. But that's just the way it is with some people.

My dear Eze, what the heck makes you think you need to lose weight? You are absolutely perfect as you are! Don't listen to your parents!
If you DO want to shape up, do it for yourself, not for them! There's nothing wrong with your body!

(*wheezes off with the elves*)

Fat is never good. It's not practical, it's ugly, it's un-healthy, and its not natural. Besides it gives off the image of a lazy person who is not control of their lives. Any way you look at it, fat isn't good.

If a person is fat of their own choice, of course, nobody has a right to go calling names on them for it. But I do not agree the slightest that you should always just say "there's nothing wrong with you! why, you look just perfect as you are!", when that's not the case. Don't beat the person down, but don't flatter them and lie to their faces for it either. Note to those who might not read what is written, I do not like skinny persons either. I like the medium. Some normal added soft body figures (not talking about the female figures only) here and there do not make a person fat.

That's not true Foradasthar. Fat is good. Normal bodyfat has it's functions (energy reserves as well as thermo-isolation, amongst others.) else it wouldn't be there. Too much fat is bad, because the extra fat brings no advantage whatsoever to the person carrying it around.

And as Rallymama said, rule of thumb for calculating HRmax is (220-Age).

BTW, is bellydancing any good?

Bellydancing is great!!!!

oh ... for weight loss??? I thought you just meant in general.

Actually, many of the health clubs around here (Chicago) are now offering bellydancing classes. Good cardio work out, ab work out + its fun.

Wehey, bellydancing!
My friend is REALLY good at that, you should see her!
Though she is thin as a skeleton, and she can eat mountains of food! We have decided she is going to be a supermodel. :D

When you are 9 years old and over fourteen stone it's bad

Now for me it's reversed :grin:

14 years old an 9 stone.

Used to be like a damn elephant though couldn't do much - I was attacked when I left the house. hated where I lived, and who I lived with.

I think if you are happier then you don't put on so much weight and don't eat that much.

Just try get out when you can - don't stay cooped up. If you really want to do something and can - you should go for it.

I'm fat :(

I am 20 and weigh 15 stone, whatever that is in pounds or kgs or whatever

Just for general info, according to the site I found, 1 stone equals 14 pounds avoirdupois, which I assume is another term for Imperial. That makes you 210 pounds, Shell, and that's still less than I weigh!

I guess i'm just lucky :D

I never had any problems with my weight or body shape. I eat when i remember to and eat as much as i want.
We just had a check today in school so i suprisingly even know my height and weight: 176 cm and 70 kilos. Thats really a coincidence becouse i normaly never know either of these.

However i like to drink a lot and i think it is quite healthy. Only water or herbal tea when i make it.


So as i dont have my own experience with weight-loosing my advice is just:
Drink a lot. But dont drink juices or some such, you never know what they put in them (i never trust them couse they're :evil: ). Drink something you make yourself or water.