Hi everyone! I'm going on nineteen and I've struggled with weight loss for years and years and years. Since I was ten, I've been on a diet. But I can't wait another ten years to fix this.

So I came here looking for support and advise! I hope I'll make friends and hopefully get this weight off once and for all.

Welcome to the forum.

The key thing is to get out of the diet mindset and into the "living a healthy lifestyle" mindset. No-one wants to feel like they are going to be on a diet for the rest of their life - but it is a lot easier to think of being the kind of person that chooses to try to live a healthy life by making healthy choices.

That includes finding a form of exercise that you do regularly and committing to continuing to exercise regularly into the future.

It doesnt mean never having x again where x is some treat - but to have it in moderation and appreciate that you cannot do it too often. To make normal eating consist of healthy foods.

Study the sections on exercise and nutrition paying particular attention to the sticky threads.

Learn how to properly balance your food so that your body is getting the kind of fuel that makes it run best. How much protein, fibre, calcium, healthy fats and different vitamins it takes to keep you really healthy.

Get a free account from FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal and log your food and your exercise there. You will see a breakdown of the nutrients in your food and can hone them with what you have learnt.

Phase 1 of such a plan is to bring your weight down to where you would like it to be. Phase 2 is to maintain it at that point.

For phase 1 - the fact is that you have to have a calorie deficit.

For phase 2 - you need to eat at maintenance.

Check the calorie balance on fitday and it will tell you whether your calories are in deficit so that you deserve to lose weight - or surplus which would cause you to gain weight. By adjusting the food and exercise you can have the calorie balance appropriate to the phase that you are in.

It sounds complicated - but once you get your food and exercise set to the right level it is not nearly so hard as it sounds. You just need to learn how much is healthy and how much is too much when it comes to things like portion size. Similarly - regarding some nutrients you will learn how much you need and are not getting. Lots of people do not have enough protein for instance...

Good luck.