What should I eat?

M

Mead

New member
Ok I need help choosing the right diet. Before I go any further here is some information about myself.

Age: 16 1/2
Current Weight: about 214 pounds
Goal Weight: 190 pounds by December 31, 2007. (about 3 pounds a week)
Height: 5'7


I read that if you eat too much or too little calories you gain weight and thats the last thing I want to do. I am not sure what amount of calories I should be consuming now.

I also do now know what types of foods and how much of them.

I have stopped eating junk food and only drink diet soft drinks.

How much fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy products, etc. do I need to have energy and also loose weight.

I will also do exercises but would like to have my "food consumption" plan worked out first.
 
You're not going to gain weight from eating too few calories. (That said, most people are really bad at guesstimating caloric intake, so it's entirely possible to gain weight by eating what you think are too few calories.)
There are plenty of bad things that come from consuming too few calories, but weight gain isn't one of them.

As far as how much to eat, is a place to start.

IMHO, a 3 pound a week goal isn't particularly sustainable over 8 weeks. Better to set your goals attainable and overachieve, than set them unattainable and be disappointed.
 
Well, I lost 3 pounds in about 5 days so I thought it was alright. But I guess I also did over 20+ miles of biking over the course of three days.

Heres the info from that one site

Maintenance: 2703 Calories/day
Fat Loss: 2162 Calories/day
Extreme Fat Loss: 1720 Calories/day
 
Mead said:
Well, I lost 3 pounds in about 5 days so I thought it was alright. But I guess I also did over 20+ miles of biking over the course of three days.
Click to expand...

LOL - I've "lost" as much as 4 pounds in one day, going from scale weight one morning to scale weight the next. But over the long term (weeks and/or months), I average about 5 pounds every 3 weeks. The rest is just water fluctuation.

You'd need a 10,500 calorie deficit to lose 3 pounds of fat, which would work out to 2,100 calories a day over 5 days. The biking burns 300-400 calories a day, so if your maintenance is 2700, you'd have to be consuming at most 1,000 calories a day to lose at that pace. (And probably more like 600, because to get those stats out of the calculator, you have to have a significant amount of activity already calculated in.) And that's not enough.

From the calculation, it looks like you'd have an actual deficit of between 541 and 983 calories a day, or 1.1 to 2.0 pounds a week.
 
I would definitely stay away from too many carbs. Even some good foods just have to many carbs and if you are more sedentary than active you won't be doing yourself any good.
 
Another suggestion, to find out how much of each food group you need is to google the government's food chart. It sure seems like a lot of food required to me, when I look at it, but it's also important to learn what a "portion" of food really is. It's certainly not what restaurants serve! There is lots of information on portion size on the internet as well. For example, a serving of meat is supposed to be the size of a deck of cards. They give you good tips for measuring it out in your mind.
 
even if u dont eat junk food.. diet soft drinks are still bad i think..
i recomment u switch ur drinks to water, tea.. but if u want something tasty then i think juice will be fine too.. but even those juices they sell in stores have too much sugar in it..
also.. i've heard that eating 1 or 1 1/2 an apple for breakfast is enough.. eventhough i totally agree that its far from stopping my stomach to growl during class.. :p (its kinda embarassing..) so then i drink a cup of milk with it.. or yogurt if u like ^^
for lunch i dont restrict myself that much as long as its not really bad food..
dinner is the most important i think.. u should eat the least out of three meals...

and if u keep exercising everyday (or at least 4,5 times a week), i'm sure u'll have great results.. good luck ^^
 
- If you can possibly swing it, I'd advise you to switch as many of your beverages to water as you can. Water is the best aid to weight loss there is. Doesn't taste as good as diet soda (or in my case, sweet iced tea) but it definitely does the trick.

- I'm a soup advocate. Soups are great for keeping you hydrated and they make an easy, hot meal for the middle of the day that's filling; you can just chunk in the microwave and go.

- Fresh fruit, whatever kind is your preference, is usually a good thing to keep on hand. Low fat nuts like almonds are really good too for snacking.

- Try to eat small portions more than three times a day. I try to get in three healthy squares and two small snacks, with a late night snack if I'm particularly hungry after working out in the evening after dinner.

- Cereal (especially health cereals like Special K and Total) are great meal substitutes. Instead of french fries with a steak at night (for example) eat a bowl of cereal and a steak. Same amount of fullness, *many* less calories and much more nutritious for you!

- Salads are always a great option, too. Try darker lettuces for vitamins and those little spritzer dressings control your dressing portion in an amazing way. If you're partial to heavy dressings like me (I'm a Thousand Island fanatic, and it's *terrible* for you!) put some in a small container on the side and dip your fork in it before you spear your greens. You still get some great flavor that you crave, but it's much better than just drizzling it all willy-nilly over your salad.

Good luck!
 
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