How to lose weight?

Do not begin any weight loss or exercise program without seeing a doctor first. Tell your doctor what you want and follow his instructions.

There is only one person who can be sure you follow your program and that is YOU.

First off, I am not a health expert or personal trainer guru. I do consider myself fit for a average person and would like to share my personal experience and opinions. By all means do more research and ask more questions.

@lauren_119 Cut out any soda or anything of like. Personally for me I’ve been doing just water, juices(mainly OJ with extra pulp) and milk. Mostly water. Sometimes I’ll have like a sierra mist or ginger ale as a treat.

Cut out the small stuff. Don’t grab the extra bag of chips, no candy bars, desserts, or an extra slice or servings. Just say to yourself I am done and walk away. Once you get into a routine and see results give yourself a small reward or have a day off. That doesn’t mean go and indulge all day or go crazy with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMnMp-d5pKs

This video is great in my opinion. Do you have a plan? It seems like you are just kind of winging it. In the video a lot of people don’t watch the videos I reference them to so in essence he talks about, sometimes motivation won’t always do it for you and you need to create habits and have a solid plan which you can commit to. Whether you write it down, say it to yourself everyday, put it on a calender, in your phone, anything!

Now if you watched the video don’t misinterpret it as “Don’t be motivated” what the point is, that there will be times where you probably won’t be motivated. Which is perfectly fine and normal. However when that happens you need something to look at or remember that will help you stay on track like the examples I gave you or whatever works for you.

Less calories is going to help however don’t starve yourself and do not forget nutrition. Honestly a balanced diet is the way to go. None of this fad stuff where you cut all carbs or cut all fat or something like that. There is a reason it exists your body needs it. Moderation is what counts. Ultimately in my experience it was just matter of cutting back my already balanced portions

This way I am working out burning off more than I am taking in, losing weight, gain muscle and still giving my body what it needs to maintain and recover from exercising.

Speaking of which you can probably diet and lose weight, but I think getting into a exercise plan of some sort will help immensely. Whatever you do GO INTO THIS SLOWLY. You are probably going to be tired, sore and possible hurting a bit. But go SLOW no need to get injuries. Light calisthenics,swimming, walking, getting a bike. Low impact low stress, but still can get a good workout till you build up to saying running, or more demanding/challenging exercises. I don’t know your actual fitness so maybe it is more or less.

You said you go to the gym, what is your workout routine in the gym?

I am trying to think as much as I can off top of my head. Last thing I will say is expect this to TAKE TIME. Everyone is different one person might take shorter or longer amount of time to get where they want to be. Even when your formal comes and goes consider sticking with it for LONG TERM. Not just a quick fix. Something that is a lifestyle change. Because I get the feeling you may or may not lose some weight. The formals come and go now you either say screw it I feel good where I am at and then get sloppy and find yourself back to square one, or don’t meet your goals and spiral down. Stick with it.

Keep excising!
Control your eating.

What you eat matters most. More than exercise, but exercise is important too. I agree with @YARNLADY to see a doctor first. Let them run some blood work and make sure you don’t have any underlying problems like a slow thyroid that might be adding to your weight problems. Also, maybe your doctor can refer you to a nutritionist and your insurance will cover it? They can give you some information and guidelines.

I also recommend counting your calories for a week and writing it in a journal. Calorie counts are on all foods that are packaged, be sure to look carefully at what a serving size is. One small bag of potato chips can be two servings. Canned soup also often has two servings. So if you eat the whole can you need to double the calories listed. For $25 you can buy a good kitchen scale, so you can weigh foods like meat and figure out the calories. You can buy a small pocket size book or look online for calorie counts of foods.

Once you know your calorie intake and become familiar with how many calories are in foods you can make better choices. Pretty much if you make your diet 50%+ vegetables, add some fruit, and do your best to stay away from candy and sweets, you should lose weight, but I don’t know what you are eating now.

Lastly, I assume (bad to assume) that your family has bad food in the house. If that is the case, see if your parents will agree to eat better with you in the house. It’s really hard to eat well when there is frozen pizza, chips, hot dogs, and cookies in the house every day. I have no idea if that is your situation.

Focus on what you CAN eat.
Eat at least 3 cups of vegetables a day. You can have as much fruit as you want as long as you have MORE vegetables. If you are counting salad as a vegetable, 3 cups =1 vegetable in this scenario.
Try using salsa instead of salad dressing.
Limit your bread to two slices per day.
Switch to non fat milk
Don’t drink your calories. Drink only calorie free beverages.
Switch to lean proteins. Fish, chicken, shrimp. A portion is the size of a deck of cards.
Cut out all fried foods
Join a program like weight watchers where you can get educated and get support at the same time.

1 My fitness pal is an excellent free program online that allows you to keep track of your meals, calories and physical activities. (recommend you go no lower than 500 calories a day. Gradual weight lost last longer) Lets say your calorie intake should be about 2400 but you exercise enough to kill 300 calories and your calorie intake was 2200, then you are at 1900 for the day. Of course if you normally eat 3000 calories a day, you will feel like your are starving till you adjust to what your calories should be.

2. Lose weight because you love yourself and want to be healthy and enjoy activities without getting tired, not because it will please others.

3. For physical exercise ideas, I recommend fitocracy.com They give interesting challenges that will keep you from getting bored and it starts your exercises slow. I find it can be addictive, but that may just be me. I love challenges.

4. You are young so stay away from all the pills and magic pills that are a bunch of garbage. Slow and steady wins the race. If you are already active and you are not eating more calories than you should, then you may want to see a doctor to rule out thyroids.

YOU’RE PERFECT THE WAY YOU ARE <3

Limit calories and fill up rest of stomach with fiber (huge bowl of salad, vegetables…).

Eat slowly.

The key: don’t get hungry.

1. Improve your diet. I don’t mean counting calories, cutting out carbs, or any of that fad rubbish. Learn what healthy food is and isn’t, avoid overly processed foods, and learn to really hate the thought of the bad stuff. I rather go hungry than eat from most burger places – the thought of eating it makes me recoil in horror. I have dessert around once every two weeks. I have never been overweight – this is just how I eat. So don’t do it to lose weight and then go back to your old ways, change your mindset.

2. Do STRENGTH work at the gym. Girls won’t develop huge muscles until you’re Serena Williams fit – which believe me is a long way off. Strength work burns slightly less calories while you’re at the gym, but done properly, it will keep burning throughout the recovery period as your body refuels and strengthens your tired muscle. This is reflected by a greater total energy use, and a more even use throughout the day.

3. If you can afford it, get a personal trainer. Learn all you can from them, and ask as many questions as you can think of. They will teach you how to eat, train, and move effectively. If you can’t afford it, make sure you research properly before doing serious strength training, to avoid the risk of injury.

4. Learn to fight. Nothing I have ever come across is as good at improving a person’s figure as martial arts. There’s an instructor there to push you, you use your body in the most natural way possible, it is fantastic for self esteem, you’ll learn a valuable skill, and you will develop mental strength you never thought possible. There are also real goals for you to achieve – your fitness isn’t governed by numbers on scales, or one more rep at the gym, but being able to move like a champion when your sparring partner is gasping for air and moving like a drunk sloth. A discussion of which martial art is best for which purpose is beyond this thread, so PM me if you plan to start fighting.