Hi everyone. First time posting.
I'm here because I've spent the past 4 months on the internet reading about all the different "diet plans" and I'm just not sure if any of them work for me.
I'm 17. I just need to lose the last five pounds of a years work.
I'm 5'7" and 135 pounds. I just need to get rid of these last five pounds to be truly comfortable in my skin.

On an average day I eat the following:
Breakfast - Special K with semi-skimmed milk
Mid-morning snack - an apple
Lunch - a salad and either a couple of fishfingers or some kind of vegetable and another apple.
Snack - an apple or a cereal bar.
Dinner - either a veggie burger (without bread) or a salad with crackers.

I try to run every day (maybe missing a day sometimes) between 15 minutes to 45, depending on how I'm feeling.

Am I eating too many calories? Am I eating too little? Am I eating the wrong food? Do I need more exercise?
Or do I just need more patience?

What am I doing wrong? I've been at this same weight for a month now. It won't go down anymore. I don't necessarily want to be drastically skinnier, just a little thinner and more toned.

Any help would be great.

You need more protein. Skim milk and some fish fingers? Thats like 20g in a day. I guess a veggie burger has protein so maybe 30-35. Thats not enough. Instead of eating 3 apples work in a little protein. Down 3 oz of tuna or something.

Stop running everyday and do something else. Running is good but you may want to also do some resistance training or HITT.

If you just need to lose 5 more lbs I would say up the protein (as close to 1g per lb of BW as you can get) as well as doing some heavy lifting. As you approach goal weight your body will want to hold onto its reserves (fat) and will be more willing to sacrifice lean mass (muscle) That = skinny and soft, not lean and toned. Lifting you will make your body feel the need to hold onto that muscle and lose the fat.

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“I believe there are people out there that just have a warrior spirit, it’s just something I do.”---Evan Tanner RIP Evan

Thanks for the input.
More protein? Well, I'm a vegetarian so that is often difficult.
I eat eggs semi-often but I'll up the protein! More!

Here are two pictures of myself, that I was going to post in the first post.
As you can see, I just need to lose a little weight and TONE UP!



If I stop running what else should I do? I know I need to do more weight training but I need cardio too don't I?

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Do you have an aversion to to whey protein? I will assume if you eat eggs you should be ok with a dairy based protein. There are soy protein supplements as well. I didnt really mean STOP running. If you enjoy running by all means do it. I just meant your body gets used to things. If you are running the same pace every day and that is your whole routine then that will get stale and your body will adapt. What a 30 minute jog did for you 3 months ago you may need an hour jog to do now and so on.

Do you go to a gym? I would either do a couple of cardio days a week or just throw in 15-20 minutes after your weight training.

__________________
“I believe there are people out there that just have a warrior spirit, it’s just something I do.”---Evan Tanner RIP Evan

Check out this website I found that shows you the best weight lose programs out there.
LINK REMOVED

Let me guess, we can get a free laptop if we take advantage of special offers?

__________________
“I believe there are people out there that just have a warrior spirit, it’s just something I do.”---Evan Tanner RIP Evan

I'm a big fan of tuna myself. A can is just the perfect amount of protein for a meal.

I'm not sure you're eating enough, particularly as you're only 17 and therefore still growing.

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I thought maybe that was the case.
I've just gotten really obsessed with what I put in my mouth.
Today I had two slices of bread with lunch and felt SO guilty, I ate only a salad for dinner.
Is two slices of bread bad if you are on a diet?
I can't distinguish between healthy and unhealthy eating patterns.

You need to be real carful b/c you're heading in a direction that can get pretty sticky. Becoming obsessed with what you put in your mouth, at best, can drive you crazy and at worst, can lead to eating disorders. Especially at your age.

There's no reason to be obsessed.

Pick a sane caloric intake based on your size. At 135 lbs (mind you, I haven't really read this thread, just this last post), you should be taking in around 1800-2000 calories. To lose, subtract a bit from there... maybe 200 or so.

Where those calories come from isn't going to make or break your progress... therefore don't fret to the extent that you feel guilty eating some bread.

Base your diet on protein, as Ed said and fill in the gaps with carbs and fats.

No particular food is going to make you fat as long as you are within your caloric range.

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hey you are still 17 and eating like that? it will not be good for your growth as you are still growing! try eating some more proteins and carbohydrates (not much) and you should exercise much more 3 times a week!

On the exercise front - what about yoga? If you are looking for that "lean" look then I have found that the stretching you do in yoga makes all the difference. Heavy lifting can tend to build muscle mass, but I got the impression you wanted slim & toned, not Schwarzenegger

Great thing with yoga is you can do it at home, in any weather too. Although the hot yogas like Bikram or Sunstone take it to a whole new level.

Something to think about!

That's just silly, really. How does stretching make you lean?

Heavy weight training puts slab of muscle on you in the face of a caloric deficit?

No.

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Well - here's what I've seen in my experience. If you work weights, then you tend to build bulkier muscle over a shorter range of motion. With an exercise like yoga - you are extending through the full range which tends to develop "leaner" muscle.

I take your point about not building much muscle if you are restricting your calories - the Schwarzenegger comment was, of course, an exaggeration! But I still say that stretching exercises tend to develop a leaner look than power exercises - compare those gymnasts that do the mat exercises with those who do the rings for example - both are very fit, but their build is very different because the demands on their bodies are very different.

That's assuming people are stupidly using partial ranges of motion in their lifts, which isn't the case often.

Lifting weights, in many cases, actually increases flexibility.

Not sure how many people you've trained but in my experience, most any sedentary person you take and put them on an appropriate weight lifting routine will experience an increase in flexibility.

To boot, most anyone with a balanced routine in general is working their 'fitness' on all angles... not just strength, but also cardio and mobility/flexibility/prehab/rehab/etc.

You do understand what leanness is, right?

It's a reduction in body fat and a preservation of muscle mass.

Without said preservation, leanness is much harder to obtain.

What preserves muscle better? Resistance or flexibility?

The former gives your body a signal/reason to preserve what it currently has.

The latter does not.

I'm not suggesting flexibility or stretching exercises aren't important. But to go as far as to say that they're better for getting that 'lean' look than weight training is preposterous really.

It couldn't be a combination of a) elite athletes are genetically dispositioned to compete in the particular events they excel in and b) their training for their particular event is specific to said event, and therefore will generate specific adaptations.

And if you think mat gymnasts don't lift heavy weights, you've are sorely mistaken.

People are bound by their genetics. Sure, they can alter their body fat and their muscle mass, but their bound by a preset range of limitations. The best you can do in terms of leanness is to lose as much body fat as possible and preserve as much muscle mass as possible and flexibility simply isn't going to give you that.

To boot, to make stretching exercises and weight training an either/or proposition is sort of ridiculous.

Is this the type of information your site promotes?

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