Can anyone help me?

S

shaun21

New member
I am 17 years old and around 6ft 2 in height. I weigh around 270lps. I really need help in losing weight and just do not understand how i have gained the weight. As i am still at school my food intake usually consists of toast for breakfast and a jacket potato for my evening meal (no lunch). I do not understand why i am not loosing any weight. For example this weekend i have been on a camping trip and played 2 and a half hours of intense football each day ( i am extermely fit for my size). I gained a total of 6 pounds and i know that i did not eat 21,000 calories more than i needed.
One side note is water retention. I do not drink a lot of water a day, maybe one to two glasses a day and usally drink just diet sodas, could this be the reason why, im running out of answers. I've been told that i have a place in sheffield wednesday academy if i lose some weight and have the correct standard of fitness. please help
 
Correct me if i got this wrong but you are:

  • 17 years old,
  • weigh 270 pounds
  • 6 feet 2 inches tall
  • eat toast and one jacket potato per day.
  • drink only two glasses of water a day.
  • drink diet sodas
  • exercise intensely for hours at a time

Those are the fact you've told us.

Its astonishing you are not dead if this is true.

Now if you want help, you could try sharing the whole picture.

What else do you eat?
Why do you eat so badly if this is all you eat?

I have given out a lot of information on this site to people in vaguely similar situations to you. I am starting to get tired of repeating myself. So i am going to make some suggestions to help you but spare myself.

1) Start a weight loss diary and list everything you eat through out the day.
Toast is not an adequate report. Write how many pieces, what sort of bread, and what you put on it. And how much of what you put on it.

2) Each day you visit this forum to record your food diary, read some other threads on the forum with a view to finding informative answers. Have a look at the advanced weight loss forum and read the exchange we had with someone called Maxa.

3) Read my dairy. See the link below. Just skim it and try to pick up few tips along the way and read some of the nutrition links.

4) Use net calculator tools to work out your BMR and RMR. Use google to find out what these mean and how they related to how much food you need to eat. Know what is meant by maintenance calories. Discover how many calories there are in 1 gram of fat, protein, carbohydrate.

5). Start counting calories. Its boring but you probably need to do it for a little while.

6) Read a good nutrition book. Ask the school librarian for a couple. Record some interesting points you learn in your diary. Others may benefit from your experience and you might be interested to recall them later on.

7) Quit drinking soda. Drink about 8 glasses of water per day. Drink it by the glass rather than sipping incessantly from a bottle because that seems to cause a thirst habit. (In actuality your 8 glasses of water can be any sort of drink, but not tea or coffee because these are dehydrating. But because you want to lose weight, it is better that your eight glasses are pure water.)
 
You're starving yourself which is why you're not losing weight. Educate yourself. Men need at least 1800 calories a day. Eat sensibly!
 
I'll just quote my signature here:

"Having a heartbeat is very important if you want to stay healthy."
 
shaun21 said:
I am 17 years old and around 6ft 2 in height. I weigh around 270lps.if i lose some weight and have the correct standard of fitness. please hel
Click to expand...

Since you're 270lbs and pretty active, you can eat 3,000 calories/day and lose weight.

1) Join Fitday (or similar)
2) Trach your food intake (use a sclae, don't guess)
3) Monitor for a week at least and see how much you're eating.
4) Increase to 3000 cals/day (give or take) and pay attention to macros (carb:protein:fats) which might need to be 50:30:20.
5) As your weight drops, adjust your calories downwards. Slowly. Not crazy.
6) You'll lose weight, guaranteed following this plan.
 
Given what you've told us, you're starving yourself. Even if you're not subjectively hungry, you're not eating anywhere near enough to keep yourself alive and healthy, and so your body is hanging on to everything it's got (the minimum for any adult is 1200, for men- that includes you- it's 1800, and given you're tall your requirements will be much higher). You're damaging your metabolism and your development (you're almost certainly still growing, and brain development only ceases in the early-mid 20's). You're also not getting the vital nutrients you need. Look at the advice others have given you, and take it. Possibly also see the doctor to see if you've caused yourself any lasting harm.
 
shaun21 said:
[Its astonishing you are not dead if this is true.

why is it?
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fortyfour is trying to express the seriousness of what you're doing to yourself. In a sense fortyfour is saying that "you're killing yourself" because of the list that you gave us.

I hope you got more out of all the comments than that.
 
This is what I ate today 3 pints of water 1 pint of apple juice 2 rounds of toast a tuna sandwhich on wholemeal bread and a jacket potato with beans, is this ok?
 
Well, if you want to eat 5-600 calories a day (with hardly any protein/fat) any weight loss i you have is likely to be muscle. Your performance in sports will decrease noticably before too long.

You've had some very good advice (even mine) and if you chose to ignore it and go for a starvation diet then have at it.

The chances of you having a fitness level suitable for competitive football, even for Sheffield Wednesday, is about zero.
 
If that's your total consumption for the day, then no, you're not eating anywhere near enough, and your nutrition is, frankly, pretty lousy (which is very important both at your age and given all the exercise you're doing).

Assuming nothing else, you need a minimum of 1800 calories a day as a man (or growing teenager, either fit you). I'm going to have to make some assumptions about what you're eating without specifics, but I'll lay these out below.

Water- no calories. Not enough either, you should be pitching for 3.5-4 pints (especially in the warmer weather- and I'm not too far from Sheffield, please don't tell me it hasn't been warm), more given you exercise.
Pint of apple juice- about 260 calories (working from my calorie calculator). Loaded up with sugar, without the benefits of actual fruit (some of the benefits if you have it with the bits in, but most people would specify if they did)
2 slices of toast- about 200 calories (working from the bread I used to eat)
Tuna sandwich- about 200 calories plus (assuming 100g of tuna in brine) 105.4 calories. Wholemeal bread is better than white but too much bread in a day isn't a good thing. Tuna is a good choice, but try some salad vegetables with it.
Jacket potato and beans- assuming a large potato (as found on Google) 278 calories, plus (assuming a whole 415g pack of beans) 390.5 calories. Baked beans are loaded in salt and can be loaded with sugar. And that's assuming minimal additions of things like salt or butter.

Generally- where are your vegetables/ fruit? (Juice counts as one of your five a day, although it's the worst type to count, potato counts as a starch, baked beans may count) Where's your dairy (or replacement if you're lactose intolerant)? Sainsbury's do a simple pamphlet on the kinds of things you should be eating (no need to buy Sainsbury's things, the general principle applies) to be in line with NHS guidelines:

Even given some big assumptions (I doubt you had a whole can of baked beans, for example, and in general I'm trying to overestimate), that's 1433.9 calories. No teenager should be eating under 1800 calories except under medical orders, especially not one as tall as yourself. You're starving yourself. And if you're eating this kind of thing every day, you don't have enough variety in your diet by a long shot.

Given your stats, you have a BMR of 2572.3. That's the number of calories you need for your body to run if you do nothing, not even get out of bed. I'd be pitching more at this number, maybe as high as 3000 given your activity levels (depending on whether you'd class your activity as moderate or very active, you need between 3000 and 4400 to maintain your weight).
 
To me eating more than 3 times a day feels as though it is overeating, I have always eaten similar amounts throughout my life so you have to understand it is difficult to change. I am not trying to starve myself but 3000 calories seems a he'll of a lot
 
Yes of course, but if someone said that to lose weight you need to eat more would you trust them straight away?
 

When you ask for help you need to be willing to accept advice given to you.

Your title says "can anyone help me"

We're trying.
Do you want help or not?
 
shaun21 said:
Yes of course, but if someone said that to lose weight you need to eat more would you trust them straight away?
Click to expand...

If they were giving me all of this evidence as to why I should...yes.
...and if you do research on your own you will find all of these things out for yourself also.

But we can't make you do anything.
 
You need to change, one way or another. If you don't want to eat more than 3 times a day, then don't, but you need to get your calories in (and your nutrition).

3000 calories is a lot, but you've got quite a lot of you (both from height and weight) and your body needs all that energy to keep you going. It's a bit like a car- you're trying to fuel a people mover with the petrol needed for a little 2 door hatchback. It doesn't work. (I'm 5 foot 5-6, and weigh 154lb, and I eat more than you. My calorie aim- and I've been losing 2.2lb a week for a month- is 1885 a day)

I'm used to thinking in lower calorie amounts, but I can certainly get you way over what you're currently eating without giving you more than your 3 meals and without thinking too hard.
Breakfast: 50g of porridge (180 calories) made with 300ml milk and topped with 200ml milk (assuming semi-skimmed milk, 250 calories), with a chopped up banana (on average size, 95 calories) and 30g of sultanas (90 calories). Even add some honey on top if you like (15g- 49 calories). Subtotal: 569 calories (calculations from Tesco Scottish porridge oats, Tesco semi-skim milk, google, Tesco value sultanas, Tesco value honey). You're getting your dairy, and 2 of your 5 a day.
Lunch: a sandwich made with seeded bread (e.g. Hovis Sensation light and nutty- just the first one on the Tesco site with nutrition- 2 slices 236 calories) with 100g tuna in brine (105.4- taken from my calorie calculator based on Princes dried weight) a hard boiled chopped up egg (78 calories- source Google), a tomato (say 90g- 16.2 calories), and some lettuce on top (say 10g- about 2 calories). Have an apple (say 100g- 50 calories) and 50g of peanuts (290 calories- source, Tesco website) with it with it. Subtotal: 851.4 calories, and another two and a bit of your five a day.
Dinner: Try something a little more substantial. Say 100g wholewheat spaghetti (325 calories), with some sort of meat dish. For example, spaghetti bolognese. 125g (recommended serving) mince (232 calories- source, Tesco website), 160g (recommended serving) bolognese sauce (75 calories- Tesco brand as it has the nutrition listed. counts as one of your five a day), with 30g of mature cheddar cheese on top (125 calories). If you like, put some kidney beans in there to bulk it up (a serve- 120g- is 125 calories. counts as one of your five a day). On the side, have some vegetables (e.g. 80g of steamed carrot- 32.8 calories- and 80g of steamed courgette- 13.6 calories). Four of your five a day right there. Subtotal: 928.4 calories.
Total: 2348.8 calories, and I've hit your nutritional requirements as well.
 
I do trust you and will dolls your advice, I was just cautious that's all because to me telling someone who is overweight to eat more is like telling an anorexia patient to eat less, I do trust you and will take the advice given
 
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