Losing weight in BOARDING SCHOOL!!!

[syrupsalad666]

Greetings y'all,


Not sure if I'm in the right area for this, but here is my situation:


I'm a big guy, 17 years old and 6 foot 7 inches. I weigh about 112 kg, and am not all too happy with my body.

I've been self-conscious about my body since I can remember.

I'm particularly chubby around the waist (big surprise) but just generally flabby all over.

At this point, I'm happy with myself and learned to accept my flaws, but that doesn't necessarily mean I have to ignore them.

Ipso facto, I'm on a weight loss program for my last year at boarding school.


The reason I'm posting this thread, is I need some advice.


My school has a gym, which I use about 5 times a week. I do about 20 minutes of aerobic training there, and occasionally about an hour of weight training (2-3 times a week).

Usually I use the elliptical trainer. I do interval training (1 minute low intensity, 30 seconds high intensity, x8). I take a break then I do the same again but x4.

Exercise-wise, does this all seem right to you? Exercise is my weakness when it comes to weight loss, so I need to know if what I'm doing is fine. If not, why not?


As for food, I've taken up eating only 3 square meals a day. No seconds, no dessert, no salt.

As for snacks, I have fruit (pears, apples, oranges mostly) and tea with no milk.

Haven't had any alcohol since I started.

The issue is:

My school sometimes gives us junky-type food for breakfast/lunch/dinner, like pizza, mac'n'cheese, potato wedges, fish n chips etc etc and there's no way of knowing how many calories is in a dish.

I don't take to starving myself, and try and get enough protein/carbs/fat/veggies etc in my meals as i can, without getting seconds. So I eat the meals I'm given, with a bunch of extra salad and veggies from the salad bar.


I'm hoping to lose 1-2 pounds a week (the ideal amount, apparently)

I've been doing this for about 2.5 weeks now, and I have no way of weighing myself (or measuring myself - i'll get a tape measure, or a weight scale at some point) so I don't know if anything's happened so far (I doubt much will have happened, so I don't see much point in measuring this early).


So, apart from the ones already mentioned, here's another question:


Being as big as I am, would having occasional junky foods in school cafeteria affect my ideal weight loss rate, as long as I stick to 3 meals a day with fruit snacks (calorie calculator says that 2696 cal is the amount I have to take in if I want to lose weight)?


I appreciate any advice I'm given, even if it doesn't address a question, but just a general aspect of my routine. So please, let me know what you think. I'm really hoping to pull it off this time!


syrupsalad666

 

[PLB]

Well if this is a big change from what you were doing before, then it seems like a good plan. With regard to the exercise, are there other activities that you can do outside of your gym time? Even if it's just walking, hiking, etc. just doing as many things as possible that require to you be moving will be beneficial.


As for the meals, since you don't really have any control over what you're being served, then it's just up to you to control your portions, which you've alread started doing! So, even if it's not the best quality of food, if you control your overall portions and calories, then you should be good. If you do this for a few weeks and you don't lose any weight, then you're taking in too many calories, so you'll have to figure out a way to reduce them slightly each day.


You don't necessarily need a measuring tape or scale... do you have a piece of string? You can measure your waist circumference and mark the string each time. Just make sure you measure in the same location every time.


Make sure you really maintain your strength/resistance training and get enough protein throughout the day. You want to maintain as much muscle mass as possible as this will help you both with body shape as well as keeping the weight off in the long term.


Good luck!