Hello everyone. It is very nice to be here! I've been looking around this forum for a long time and decided to finally post. My name is Shelly, I am 18 years old and a senior in high school. All my life I have been overweight pretty much all my life and I'm sick and tired of beeing sick and tired of the way I look. Last year I lost a total 53 pounds, going from 172 (freshman year) to 119 pounds (junior year). But unfortunitly I lost the weight unhealthily by severly limiting my food intake (not eating more than 1000 cals a day) and I exercised by going to curves and walking. Last year I finally got sick and tired of constantly being hungry so I gave in to binge eating and eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and now I am a senior and I am currently at 161 pounds. I am going to loose this weight healthily this time by eating the calories appropriate for me and exercising at Bally Total Fitness 4 days a week by strength training and either doing cardio on the elliptical trainier and the treadmill, and I'm also going to go for walks/runs at least 2 days a week. I am confused as to how many calories are appropriate for me (I'm 5'2. 18 years old and 161 pounds) how do I figure that out? In this journal I am going to record my food intake and my exercise for the day, and I also hope to make some new friends on this board and have fun Well I am going to go eat my lunch then it's off to the gym with me, I'll be back later this evening to record my food and exercise for the day. I hope everyone has an awesome Saturday

Welcome, Shelly! If you browse this website, you will find tons of helpful tips on diet and exercise! Also you will find so much support which will keep you going in your healthy weight loss journey!

Thanks alot Keepitoff! I really appreciate the welcome...Could you maybe send me a link that explians to me how many calories I should be having per day? I tried to find links that would help me but I'm having a hard time finding them...As far as today went it went pretty well food and exercise wise.
Breakfast: Small bowl of Life cereal with blueberries and 1% milk
Lunch: Small amount of jumbalaya rice with shrimp, probably about a cups worth (I'm bad with measurements lol)
Dinner: Fresco style chicken salad with chicken, rice, beans, salsa, and lettuce
Exercise: 40 minutes on the elliptical machine, stretching
I know I didn't have much food today but I'm just not hungry, I had way to much to eat last night for dinner and it's pretty much kept me full all through today (Last night was when I really decided that I have had enough of binge eating and feeling sorry for myself, I don't even want to say what I ate lol). Tomorrow I plan on going through a nice walk if it's nice out and some strength training (squats, lunges, push-ups, crunches) and stretching. I decided that every Sunday is going to be my walk day where I walk around my city for at least an hour then followed by strength training. Mondays and Fridays I'm not going to the gym because I do community service at a retirement home, but I'm going to start walking there and back to get some exercise in (it's only about a mile from my school) and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday are my gym days where I'm going to do either the treadmill or elliptical machine, followed by lower and upper strengh training. I think I have a really good plan as to how I am going to accomplish my goals, but if anyone has any suggestens for me as to how I can make them better please let me know! I want to loose at least 20 pounds by summertime (which would put me at 140) and of course I'm going to keep loosing through the summer. Oh and I'm also going to weigh in every Saturday and record my new weight every week on the forum and in my own personal journal. I hope everyone has an excellent evening!

Hi, Shelly. Here's a site that will help you calculate how many calories you need to maintain your weight: Fundamentals of Weight Loss

Try not to cut down more than two calories per pound. So, for example, if you're very active, you should be eating fourteen calories per pound (since sixteen calories per pound would maintain your current weight at that activity level).

Hope this helps!

Hey thanks alot for that! I appreciate it, I don't quite understand what that means though, can you please explain it to me? I just really want to know how many calories I should be eating in a day so I'm not putting myself into starvation mode without realizing it. Well today I had a nice healthy breakfast of Life cereal with 1% milk, blueberries, and a cup of coffee with splenda. Tonight dinner is going to be pretty hard because my grandmother is bringing over chinese food tonight Everyone in my family likes the fried chicken with gravy, deep fried prawns, egg rolls, fried rice, basically all the stuff I want to avoid as much as possible lol. Luckily theres also going to be vegetables, steamed rice, sweet and sour beef (not deep fried) that I can have while everyone else is pigging out on the "good stuff" lol. So I don't feel deprived I'm going to have more of the other stuff and just less of the bad stuff, maybe like just 1 prawn and a bite of chicken or something like that. It's a really nice day today so I hope nothing stands in the way of me going on my walk, I love walking, I love the fact that I don't have to feel guilty for not jogging because I walk pretty briskly and I go up alot of hills. I'll report on my day in the evening I hope everyone has a fantastic Sunday!

Well, today wasn't great as far as food goes but it wasn't terrible either. For dinner I ended up eating more than I intended, I had a small serving of fried rice, subgum, 2 prawns, a quarter of an egg roll, and 2 pieces of sweet and sour chicken (deep fried) and 1 fortune cookie. The only bad thing was I went for seconds on the subgum the rice and prawns, I almost never eat seconds but I lacked self control tonight. Oh well, it's not the end of the world, tomorrow is another day I did get out for my long walk this morning however, I estimated I walked a good 3 miles all together around my city, it was great to because it was a gorgeous day and I definitly got a workout because I went up alot of hills and I walked pretty briskly the whole time. Listening to the iPod really helps with that Then I came home and did 3 sets of 20 squats with a 5 pound dumbell, 3 sets of 10 "girly" push-ups, 40 crunches, and stretching. Tomorrow is no formal exercise but I will be walking to the Wesely Homes Medical Center (where I do community service at) thats about a half mile, and I'll be walking home (another half mile) so a pretty good walk in total. I hope everyone has an awesome week!!

Calorie Calculator - Daily Caloric Needs says 1750 would be your maintenance if you were sedentary; more like 2,000 if you exercise regularly. 1,400 to 1,600 as a target for weight loss.

Thanks alot!!

Sorry just now saw your diary again, but it looks like you got the info you need!

Way to go with 40 min on the elliptical.....that is my exercise of choice as well SOunds like you are off to a great start!

Thanks Keepitoff, yeah I LOVE the elliptical machine, I love that even if you go a minimal amount of time you still burn alot of calories, you don't burn half as much on the treadmill or the bike. Well today was really good as far as food and exercise goes, for exercise I walked to the Wesely Homes Medical Center, then I walked to my old elementary school (which is only block away from the center) and visited with some former teachers, which was really nice. I love visiting with teachers that had an impact in my life, it's always fun to catch up with them and talk to them. Then I walked the mile home. So I had several good walks today, went up 3 hills, it's all good Tomorrow I'm goin to the gym with my dad (he works out with me) and I plan on doing 40 to 45 mins on the elliptical and some upper body strength training. I've gotten to the point where I can't stand to be sitting all day anymore, if I don't do some kind of physical activity I feel really lazy and drousy and I hate that feeling. A very good sign indeed
Breakfast: 1 packet of regulary quaker oats oatmeal, some 1% milk, splenda, big handful of strawberries and blueberries, 1 cup of green tea w/ splenda
Lunch: Healthy Choise chicken w/rice soup, 1 nectarine
Snack: 2 honey oat granola bars (180 cals in total)
Dinner: Sma;; serving of hamburger helper goolash, green beans, 1 small piece of garlic bread, small amount of fruit salad with pecans (YUM)
Catch ya'll later

Hey everyone! Well today was a pretty good day food and exercise wise. Here is what went on below:
Breakfast: Bowl of life cereal w/ 1% milk with blueberries, 1 cup of green tea w/splenda
Lunch: Ham sandwhich on whole wheat bread (Hormel natural choice honey ham, YUM!) 1 serving of homeade fruit salad
Snack: 1 oats and honey granola bar
Dinner: 2 slices of meat pizza, 1 small salad with low fat house italian dressing. Eh, I could have done without that second slice, I need to start having just one slice of pizza, especially if it's a meat one. It's amazing how fast those calories add up. I'm glad that wanting to look and feel my best for the summertime is keeping me from binging on whatever I want, I refuse to spend one more summer unhappy about my weight! Last summer was just terrible because I looked and felt so gross and I hated it. I'm expecting tomorrow to be a really good day, nothing is going to stop me now from getting the body that I deserve
Exercise: 40 minutes on the elliptical machine, stretching

Good evening everyone! Today has been another great day! I had early dissmissal today at my school and we get out at 11:30, but since I only have 3 classes (I go to a program called OSC (Occupational Skills Center the second half of my day, I'm in the culinary arts program and the student body has 6 classes, so I got out of school at 9:30 today! Wahoo!! I love getting out of school early, totally makes my day! My food and exercise were also really good, so all in all a very good day
Breakfast: Bowl of honey nut cherrios w/1% milk and blueberries, 1 cup o/green tea w/splenda
Snack: 100 cal pack chips ahoy!
Lunch: Lean cuisine chicken fried rice
Dinner:1 small pork chip, brown rice, green beans, small quanity of homeade bbq sauce over rice and pork chop
Exercise: 45 mins on elliptical machine on Manual level, stretching
I need to start doing weight training again, will start on that tomrrow
Have a wonderful night!