I’m 13 and I’m having really bad problems with my weight. I’m an awfully active person and I’m constantly on the go. I eat healthy. I do have a thyroid problem and its become really bad though. would this cause weight gain? How can I lose weight?? I need to lose some quickly its effecting my mental health aswell as my physical health which I’m sure can’t be good!
Sara hello, I don't think its a good idea to lose weight quickly, probably not what you want to hear. The most important thing is to be healthy. Ask your doctor if you BMI is in range and also ask about your thyroid probs. Try not to let weight worries take over your life. At 13yrs weight goes up and down all the time so don't worry about little gains.
I am a lot older (> 3x, eek!). I got quite big for a few years, mostly very incautious with insulin, taking way more than I needed and eating all the time to keep up with it. That wasn't good and I started out cutting carbs here and there. I still eat them, but not as many as I used to. It was *very* slow process, like a pound/ week but I've kept at it. I've sort of plateaued at the bottom level of food I want to eat and I'm also pretty active, run like 10-25 miles most weeks, more in the summer. All that helps. I've done stuff like eating 1/2 a sandwich @ lunch instead of a whole one, measure stuff like cereal, eat lots of eggs and veggies. W/ the running, I notice that I feel better (less sore, I'm that old!) if I eat more veggies. I need all the help I can get so I eat veggies. Good luck!
i agree with josephine in that at 13 you do not want to get to obsessed over your weight you could be setting yourself up for a life long struggle of self hate. i would take the opposite approach, open yourself to loving yourself every single minute by making healthy diet and exercise choices. feel good and congratulate yourself with every good choice, never getting further ahead of yourself than one choice. in terms of diet i would suggest lower carbs, more protein and healthy fats ( nuts, olive oil..) and more fiber esp vegetables, research recipes and invite your whole family to eat healthier. in terms of exercise just try to squeeze in as much as you can, walking, a class with a friend, exercise videos, if you never tried yoga it is a great way to strengthen and stretch but more importantly help you listen to and nurture your body and spirit. best wishes, keep in touch. amy
did i mention water, water, water, helps with your blood sugar, metabolism and energy!
I agree that 13 is too young to get obsessed with weight but I think 13 is a great age to get obsessed in a healthy way with being healthy. The tendency in school, as I recall, although I also have a 13 year old daughter, is to think that you have to be on the team to exercise, get fit, etc. If you're not on the team, you're not "sporty" or "athletic." Unless you happen to go to school with Missy Franklin, the chances of the high school athletes doing their sport professionally or Olympically (which is basically professional too...) are very remote. One of the huge regrets of my life is that I didn't get into exercise, working out, etc. when I was younger, maybe intimidated by not being "awesome" at sports.
When I was 37, I started doing Tae Kwon Do, knowing exactly *nothing* about martial arts at all. Everybody started at square one, building skills and fitness from the ground up. Progress was slow and incremental but as I progressed, I could tell I was getting stronger, more flexible, more coordinated. I didn't really have a fixed goal when I started, as I was *positive* there was *no way* I'd be able to do a tornado kick or other challenging moves. Eventually, I hit the point where I had to learn those things to progress and did so and succeeded. It was hard and there were many times, I was like 'ok, I'm too old for this.' When I got really into it, the head of our school also noted my weight and said "you need to lose weight." A lot. That was one of the reasons I'd started that and I was doing that at the time but it took a long time to get rid of what I'd accumulated over the years. I've kept at exercising, although I stopped doing TKD right after I earned my black belt, as I had to move for work.
I switched to running and other activitiess and hvae kept at it and that's the most important thing to do. Just about everybody will acknowledge "I need to exercise" and kids are fortunate to have PE, although we get occasional of "I don't need to wash my gym clothes, we were just standing around this week..." from junior.
If you want to be healthy, the secret is to find an exercise that you can make yourself do that will get you in shape and to do it 3-4 times/ week, maybe more if you are young and not old and decrepit like I am. Walking works great and most of us can do that. The downside of walking is that it takes a long time, which many of us struggle to find time for. I started going for walks when I first started TKD because the warmups often left me breathing hard and, at 37, I felt like it was sort of my "last chance" to see if I could improve myself. Walking progressed to cycling and, eventually, to running. Walking and cycling and even running are not too expensive, although I am a total running shoe slut and will spend 45 minutes trying them on to find the ones I like. I also totally recommend going to a running store to get fitted for shoes if you have one nearby. Note Josephine's comment on my wall.
Martial arts can be pricey and, as I observed when I looked around after we moved, there are places that may not push you enough to get the benefits of well, being pushed. Many health clubs offer very diverse options for working out that can be good to take advantage of, cardio one day, weights the next, etc. but again this can cost money. You can get excellent benefits for strength and toning by looking into bodyweight exercises (e.g. squats, lunges, pushups, etc. If you can't do pushups, you can do them on a counter or on your knees to help get a feel for the exercise and start building strength) that are absolutely free, besides the mental cost of saying "I'm going to do this" and spending 45 minutes huffing and puffing.
The first step is the hardest. If your mom and dad get nervous about you walking around or running or swimming or whatever, drag them out too. Make it a family activity. Just be careful not to run them into the ground!!