How's My Lifestyle?

S

SnapThat

0
Hello, all. I'm new to these boards but it seems to me like this is a collection of intelligent individuals and I could definitely benefit from hanging around here a bit. I'll tell you right now that I am a pretty healthy person, but I'm looking to lose a few pounds of fat and gain a bit of muscle mass.

I'm fourteen years old, a girl, 5'8'' and I weigh roughly 125 lbs. I've been passively watching what I eat for the past few weeks or so (not much more than one week, though) and I've been fluctuating from 124 to 128, but I think I've stabilized for a bit. Here's a brief overview of my diet...

Breakfast: Honey Nut Bunches of Oats with Almonds (280 calories + a few for milk)
Snack: Nature Valley granola bar (160 calories, or something around there)
Lunch: Turkey Wrap w/lettuce, tomato, cheese & milk (Around 300 calories)
After School: Varies, sometimes a banana, but this is around 5:30(Don't know how many calories)
Dinner: Varies depending on the day, probably around 250-400 calories.

Sometimes I'll stick in something after dinner at around 7:00 - 8:00, like a few nuts or something. This is on a normal school day. Unfortunately, I can't give much more information about dinner 'cause I basically eat what my mom cooks.

About my exercise routine - I'm in my school's track team. This basically consists of...

3:30 - 4:00: Throwing a discus around or practicing some high jump
4:00 - 4:45: Doing a combination of 100s, 200s, 400s, curves, hills, and occasionally some hand-offs, technique, and 800s.
4:45 - 5:00: Depending on the day, doing up to 110 curl ups (and technically 110 pushups too, but I'm not strong enough to do all of them, so my form is basically crap)

As for my personal fitness level...

My fastest mile so far was 7:21, but I can do better.
I've done up to 80 sit ups during fitness testing, but they stop you there.
During fitness testing, I did 15 push ups. I could do more, but with difficulty.
I just tested by body fat % via neck-and-abdomen, and it's around 14%
Not really fitness, but I regularly sleep from 10/11:00 pm to 5:45 am.

Again, my goals are to lose fat (my midsection is embarrasingly flabby) and gain muscle. Tips? Comments? Etc?
 
I dont see why you'd be watching so closely, sounds to me like you watch more than most people outside of these forums do. First thing I'd do is trade in that regular milk for skim, 1%, 2%, or fat free. Again at lunch the same thing with the milk, and take the cheese and tomato out of that delicious sandwhich (the white bread im assuming that is on ur sandwhich doesnt help either but its not SO terrible). Your cardio is already exceeding most people, so I'd assume your "flab" is from what you ear. I'd also recommend (I know this will be hard, believe me I can't do it either) getting more sleep. Your looking at roughly 6 hours of sleep a night. The body needs more rest than that. And whatever your mom cooks, just try not to engorge everything thats on the table, not saying u do so already, im speaking from my personal experience :p . Drink lotssssssssssss and lotssssssssssss of water throughout the day. About 8 - 8 ounce glasses a day. But if your like me or most people, you dont have an 8 ounce cup lol. If you drink from the normal party cup (16 oz) than thats only 4.

Theres people on this forum *cough*spockafina*cough* who can help you alot more than I can. I'm an 18 yr old male, and spock is a female whos a few years older than me and has much more experience. Hopefully she can fill you in on anything I've left out. And good luck!
 
I think you're too young to be worrying about this - you're obviously in good shape with your track practices and all, and you're actually fairly underweight for your height. And if you're truly 14% BF, you shouldn't try to go any lower. It doesn't look like you're eating enough for a young teenager who is so active - I think you need to stop counting/planning your food and just eat when you're hungry, and eat what you want. Obviously, healthy choices are always best, but I just want to stress that you're too young to be counting calories. Right now, your body is going through so many changes - your bone density is getting heavier (will cause weight gain), hormones are being distributed through your body in very different amounts, and you need to eat enough to accomodate this change - because you're so young, your metabolism is super-high and you really need to eat enough - more than you are now.
I do agree with Shinra that you need more sleep and water.

If you want to gain muscle, start lifting weights. Does your high school have a gym you can use?
 
i totally agree with spockafina on this one. dont think you need to be worrying about you weight at all given your exercise routine.
 
Thanks for the advice, guys, and I know you have the best in mind, but I can ensure you that I'm not going to go off the deep end with any of this dieting/fitness stuff. As I said in my first post, I'm well aware that I'm healthy, I'd just like to be healthier.I'm not worried about my weight, I'm worried (if that's the right word) about just "me."

Considering my present diet, do you think my body is in "starvation mode"? I haven't seen any difference in my track performance, if that's any judge, but effects are slow in coming, I know. Your advice on more sleep is taken heartily - I probably should be in bed now, but I just had some coffee (not a normal thing; my mom and I were out tonight and I drank some of hers and some brownie) so I'm a bit wired, unfortunately. (I bet I'll be tired and regretting this tomorrow...)

If I get a bit overzealous at times, let me know - when trying to research what to do for my teenaged body, I tend to only find stuff for adults (stuff on younger people is somewhat lacking) and also tend to forget that my body isn't fully developed yet. However, I do want to get more healthy in the ways I've previously stated, although I suppose I'd best extend on them a bit.

In very specifics, I'm interested in building upper body strength (with all the running I do, I'm decently strong in my legs, althoug I'm sure that could be improved as well. As a side note, the fact that I throw disc doesn't mean I'm strong - it's a technique and coordination thing) and, as I said before, cutting some fat. I know you guys said that I shouldn't worry about that, but the fact of the matter is that I do because of several reasons - my family has a history of heart problems and I have a somewhat high heart rate, considering my activity level (I get "healthy" readings when I concentrate on relaxing and slowing my heart beat... kind of weird) and of course there is that whole self-image thing. No, I'm not going to go anorexic (sp?) any time real soon, but having a fold of fat is not exactly ideal.

Doubtlessly, I'm going to get some more comments on how I should just relax, but I don't think that doing "whatever" is going to be my plan of choice.

P.S. Out of curiosity, why would one or more gallon of water help in weight loss (and general fitness)? Obviously, before and after athletics, you would need to be sure to hydrate yourself, but on a cool day without any particular workout, is that much water really necessary? Why?
 
Your body is made up of :insert a number higher than 60 that im just pulling out of my ass because i dont know the exact digits: percent water. Water actually helps in the toning of muscles, the flushing out of bodily waste and sodium, and is somewhat of a fat burner. Not to any degree that if you drink 5 gallons of water a day you'll be skinny, but water, and lots of it, is essential to the body and losing weight. Also, your body will hold on to what is known as "water weight" which may be your problem for all we know. Water weight is the body holding onto water (thus giving a more jiggly appearance around the stomach region) due to the body assuming there isn't any water coming any time soon. That's why you need to constantly hydrate yourself throughout the day, despite the weather or physical activity.
 
FYI, I just checked my BMI (19) which is exactly fifty percentile for my age...

So spockafina - how much more should I be eating? I'm afraid that eating more will be just be adding stored energy rather than usable energy. (That's just sort of a clarification of what I asked in my earlier post - am I in "starvation mode"?)
 
When you eat it doesn't just go in and get stored as fat. Even if your the most inactive person in the world, the food is broken down and used for energy, bodily function, repairing tissue/cells/muscle, and sadly for storing fat incase one day theres no food ever in the world we can survive longer. think more positively about eating more. consider everything you eat as fueling yourself. your giving your body the stuff it needs to burn fat.

your metabolism is like a furnace. if you dont throw stuff onto the fire, the fire stays low and burns close to nothing. throw some stuff (healthy, clean, natural "stuff") onto the furnace, and the fire expands and burns everything much more efficiently.
 
Shinra said:
your metabolism is like a furnace. if you dont throw stuff onto the fire, the fire stays low and burns close to nothing. throw some stuff (healthy, clean, natural "stuff") onto the furnace, and the fire expands and burns everything much more efficiently.
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pretty good analogy

SnapThat said:
Breakfast: Honey Nut Bunches of Oats with Almonds (280 calories + a few for milk)
Snack: Nature Valley granola bar (160 calories, or something around there)
Lunch: Turkey Wrap w/lettuce, tomato, cheese & milk (Around 300 calories)
After School: Varies, sometimes a banana, but this is around 5:30(Don't know how many calories)
Dinner: Varies depending on the day, probably around 250-400 calories.
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Here's just a few suggestions:
have a more substantial snack than a granola bar - add a piece of fruit or two
For lunch, have something besides the wrap. Perhaps some natural applesauce, fresh fruit, trail mix, hard-boiled eggs,..... I'm trying to think of things you can bring to school.....
Again, have something more than a banana after school - maybe have some natural PB on the banana, or a sandwich with 100% whole wheat bread,... just something more than 1 piece of fruit.

I understand you about wanting to be healthy - you exercise a good amount, and from the diet you posted, you eat healthy food - just eat some more healthy food. Since you eat right and exercise and aren't overweight, you don't need to worry about the heart problems for a while.

And again I ask you, do you have access to free weights?
 
About metabolism - when I made my earlier comment, what I meant was I am afraid that eating more without increasing energy output would make my body simply store energy, although now that I think about it... would I just start burning more energy doing day-to-day things (higher BMR)?

Thanks for the suggestions, I've made note of them. Although, for the snack, I'm usually stuck trying to eat it between periods (four minute passing periods) but I will try to add some extra stuff, as possible. I suppose I'll bring a banana to lunch too. (I love bananas, in case you haven't noticed.) After school, I usually get home (after track) at about 5:00 now, because practice is starting to end earlier. (The season is coming to a close; we only have two more practices and one more meet - Conference!) Is it really a good idea to eat that much right before dinner? My dinner is usually at 6:00-6:30.

After track ends, I'd like to stay active. My main sport is basketball, and then some tennis, so I'll probably finding myself heading over to the courts to play some, although I admit it probably won't be as rigorous as the track workouts. Do I need to pay attention to this, or am I fine? In the summer, I'm planning on some sports-type camps, so I don't think I'll have much trouble staying active then. Which also leads to your question...

Sorry, I must've missed you asking earlier. I have a full gym membership, so I have access to basically anything, although I admit that I don't know how to use it all.
 
SnapThat said:
I have a full gym membership, so I have access to basically anything, although I admit that I don't know how to use it all.
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You mentioned in your first post that you wanted to add some muscle mass - that's why I was asking. I would suggest checking out http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html and http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html for some info - Stumptuous is really, really good - lots of great information and easy to understand. Weight lifting will also be great for keeping your metabolism going - muscle burns more calories than fat. Plus, it's really fun
 
Thanks much for the links. You're right - Stumptuous is a great resource. I'll be looking into it more over the next few days (not much time right now). I want to reiterate some of my earlier questions, though -

If I eat more, would I just start burning more energy doing day-to-day things (higher BMR) or is weight lifting the only way to keep myself around the same?

Is it really a good idea to eat that much right before dinner? My dinner is usually at 6:00-6:30.
 
SnapThat said:
If I eat more, would I just start burning more energy doing day-to-day things (higher BMR) or is weight lifting the only way to keep myself around the same?

Is it really a good idea to eat that much right before dinner? My dinner is usually at 6:00-6:30.
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If you increase your calories and eat regularly, you will raise your metabolism and will burn more calories throughout the day - no matter what you're doing.

It's best to space meals 2-3 hours apart. Maybe have your supper an hour later?
 
You sound alot more mature than the average 14 year old, and you seem to have spent alot of time reading up on health and fitness... but that said, its o.k to eat junk once in a while... some of my fondest memories when I was your age was "vegging" with the guys, playing video games, eating a whole pizza to myself, drinking pop, chips... *drooool*.... dont be affraid to have fun!!!At your age, if you follow a healthy diet through the week, taking the weekend off to have fun will have a minimal affect on your health.
 
Thanks much to all of you guys. I've taken your advice to heart and I've been working on figuring out a good workout plan that I can stick to, but won't intervene with my normal life. Spockafina - you're phenomenal and thanks for the help. Hitchiker - you're right too, that I don't need to be strictly watching what I eat, necessarily. Of course, healthy is better, but I don't need to be perfect.

Thank you!
 
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