If you’re a teenager and trying to lose weight, I know how you feel. From the age of about to 15 I was fat. I wasn’t obese, but more than chubby. I guess it doesn’t really matter the degree of my fatness, but the point was that kids noticed, and made fun. Every day I got called names and every day I went home crying. Yes, a 14 year-old boy crying every night because all the kids hated him (At least I thought so) because I was fat.
I read something once which I can’t quite remember the exact wording, but the idea was to change the things you can, accept the things you can’t, and know the difference between what you can and can’t change. People’s attitude toward you is something you can’t change. People are jerks sometimes, especially teens. Being fat is something you can change.
People will tell you that you should accept who you are and don’t listen to what others think, but I know how you feel. No one likes being fat. Not everyone can be pretty or handsome or the most popular kid in school, but there’s something about being fat that just makes you feel bad. At least it made me feel terrible. If you’re looking to lose some weight, there are some things that can guarantee that you succeed.
One is knowing that it’s going to take time. You won’t lose weight overnight. If it’s the beginning of the school year, set a goal for The New Year. If it’s The New Year, set your sights for summer vacation. Depending on just how overweight you are, it’s probably going to take about six months to really get the ball rolling. If you start dieting, it’s normal to lose about 5 pounds in the first week or so and then slow down. That’s normal and don’t get discouraged. This is the kind of thing that you must keep doing, even if it seems like you’re not getting results.
Another thing is that you need to be honest with yourself. You’re going to have to count calories and start exercising. There isn’t gong to be someone watching you every moment of the day. Even if you get your parents support for your diet, when you go to school and have that pizza with extra cheese for lunch, they aren’t going to know. Only you will know. When you skip that walk or run to watch TV or just hang out, you will be the one who suffers the consequences, no one else.
That’s not to say that you can’t eat junk food. Or that you can’t go out with friends, it’s just to say that you’ve got to control what you eat, and make an effort to exercise. If you continually do this for six months, I guarantee that you will lose weight. You don’t need to starve yourself, and you don’t need to only eat vegetables and water for six months or run the mile in less that five minutes.
The most important thing is to get a formula and set goals. If you want to diet for six days and take a day off on Friday, go for it. That’s what I used. I didn’t break from my plan at all but on Friday I went out with friends to McDonald’s and had candy and drank soda. After a while though I found that I felt terrible and didn’t really pig out too much on my days off, but you need to find something that works for you. If six months is too long, see how a month goes. You may lose 7 to ten pounds if you really stick to your diet plan. If you can do it for a month, you can do it for two. That’s 20 pounds. If you can do that for six months you could realistically lose about 40 pounds. My mom lost 60 pounds in six months and wasn’t on some crazy fad diet.
To sum it up. Make a reasonable plan, stick to it, and when you finish that plan make a new one. You’re sure to succeed.
