hey, I'm new

aviators

aviators

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Hey, my name's Rachel. I'm sixteen, turning seventeen in a few weeks, and I'm really really self conscious about my body. I weigh 162 pounds at 5'7", and I'm really clueless when it comes to losing weight. I'm very active (varsity swim team and rowing team), but my appetite is massive. I also have a horrible habit of eating due to boredom. I have a lot of trouble moderating how much I eat, though I've always eaten very healthy food. I don't know how to lose weight, and worse - my mom scoffs at me for trying, claiming that I should love my body the way it is. I feel really stuck, and I don't know where to begin. I don't want to do any carb-cutting, because I hate meat and I get tired of vegetables. I also need my carbs to survive my workouts. I have a lot of muscle, but there's also that horrible flab that ruins my self confidence. Really, I just need help and support.
 
Hi Rachel, Welcome to the WLF :)

My daughter is on a swim team - and every kid there is always STARVING after work outs...add rowing to that, and no doubt you're going to be hungry.

You might consider checking out or and track your food for awhile. They break down what you've had and you can get a clear idea if you're eating a balanced diet and what you might be missing.

Also, create a journal in the diary section, and pull up a chair, this is a great place to be inspired and motivated :)
 
Hey Rachel. It must be really hard to be a very slightly overweight athlete and to try to lose weight when you really do need the calories for energy. I'm no athlete myself, but I do know that even a little bit of exercise practically doubles my hunger. What a pain!

Other than portion control and, I hate to say it, but making sure you're eating a LOT of lean protein (although you can still have your carbs), maybe you could try weight training that targets your problem areas? Do you have a coach you could talk to about it?
 
my rowing coach wants me to gain weight (force = mass times acceleration), and my swim coach gives the team lectures about how dieting is stupid and that we need to eat more. Really, I don't have any grownup I can get much help from. I'm afraid if I try eating less, I'll eat too little and mess up my metabolism - I've heard so many horror stories about calorie-counting and dieting, I'm really hesitant to mess up my pattern. I tried one of the links that M2M posted, and it said I was too young to join, I'm about to try the other. My doctor simply tells me if I want to lose weight, I should eat half of what I already eat - but it's so hard, and that seems too simple and too drastic of a change. Can you mess your metabolism up permanently?
 
No, you won't mess up your metabolism permenately - and you're smart for even considering that.

Are there little things you can cut out? Do you drink sodas, eat chips or fast foods?

Perhaps if you can choose to eat as much NON processed foods when you're hungry, it might be able to help. You don't have a lot to lose, but small changes could make a big difference.
 
I really rarely eat junk food - I only drink diet sodas, and I drink a ton of water. I don't snack on chips ever; however I've switched from snacking on *whatever's in the fridge, insert leftover dinner here*, to making popcorn and eating carrots. But, when I do this, I eat it in large amounts because it isn't so satisfying. I think one of my major problems is eating at night, in that I practically have two dinners; one at dinner time, and one fifteen minutes later when I'm hungry again. I've recently tried to stop eating that second unnecessary dinner at night, but it takes so long for you to see results and it's really discouraging. I love food, I don't want to give it up as it is, and without results well - it makes it that much harder. I realize though that it's a long process and I just have to keep with it. That doesn't make it any easier.
 
You're right there, it is a long process, but you're building a lifelong habit of better eating.

It sounds like you have a good diet over all - I have read studies that indicate drinking *diet* soda has an 85% chance of you gaining weight. There was an article in prevention magazine that discusses how there's something in the artifical sweeteners that inhibits the body's ability to know when it's full - and you really (well, we ALL) really need to know that!

I too used to have almost two dinners, I'd be starving by the time I was fixing dinner, so I'd fix something to eat while fixing dinner...what helped me was having a bunch of small meals during the day so I didn't get to that starving point...as well as having some catabolics on the counter to snack on (like cherry tomatoes, grapes, strawberries, carrots, etc)

Finding some small things you can do, will make a difference over time.
 
!!! you're kidding! I live off diet coke... this is going to change my world, and I definitely do overeat beyond being full - I wonder if it's related. I'm going to ask my health teacher about this. All my friends binge on diet coke - what a loss.
 
Rachel, it sounds like you're a pretty healthy weight for your height, especially considering you must have tons of muscle mass. I think you know what you have to do, it's just an unpleasant thing to face. Just stick to it. It is a long process, and you won't see results fast since you have so little weight to lose, but you already know that. Just stick to it, try to find snacks that are filling (an entire bag of non-buttered microwave popcorn really doesn't fill you up? Oh man), and in the meantime, realize that you are in such good shape, I doubt anyone even notices your flabby areas, even though you know they're there.

M2M is totally right about diet soda. Lose it. I'm sorry! It's really sad but it's true.
 
I just found my original post on the topic - I haven't checked if the link still works:

Diet Soda Drinkers Gain Weight
Overweight Risk Soars 41 Percent With Each Daily Can Of Diet Soda
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...in701408.shtml
Quote:
Fowler's team looked at seven to eight years of data on 1,550 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white Americans aged 25 to 64. Of the 622 study participants who were of normal weight at the beginning of the study, about a third became overweight or obese.

For regular soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:

* 26 percent for up to 1/2 can each day

* 30.4 percent for 1/2 to one can each day

* 32.8 percent for 1 to 2 cans each day

* 47.2 percent for more than 2 cans each day.

For diet soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:

* 36.5 percent for up to 1/2 can each day

* 37.5 percent for 1/2 to one can each day

* 54.5 percent for 1 to 2 cans each day

* 57.1 percent for more than 2 cans each day.

For each can of diet soft drink consumed each day, a person's risk of obesity went up 41 percent.
 
thank you both so much for replying, I really need to go to bed now though. This site has proven itself to be awesome, and you are both equally responsible for this conclusion.
goodnight ladies! muah!
 
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