Hello, My name is Andrew or Andy whichever you prefer. I'm 16 years old and am overweight or FAT.

I've always been fat, I was 12lbs when I was born.... and now at the age of 16 I weigh just under 15 stone (210lbs) I have had kids picking on me all my life, so just after I found Johns site, I decided that enough was enough. My life had to change. I needed my self-confidence back.

I have been on a diet for a week and a bit now and have lot 6lbs (down to 204lbs) I hope to get to 168lbs so to achieve this I need to loose 36lb.

What I am doing sounds different to alot of you though. I am eating slim-fast. Shakes, soups, pasts, snak bars. I have these as my 3 meals a day, with some fruit aswell.

Anyway, this is me introduced, I hope that I have a good time here on my journey.

Andy :tu:

Great to hear that you are turning your life around. A word of warning though, shakes, bars, etc. are probably not the easiest or best way of getting the weight off. Those shakes are packed full of sugar, and are not very balanced. Your best bet is to develop a diet plan that is much more balanced, and eat actual food at every meal. I have done the shakes in the past, and lost the weight, but gained it all back on, because I gained zero muscle. My advice would be to ditch the shakes, look around this site and develop a balanced diet, and start a workout routine.
That's my 2 cents. Best of luck to you. :gl:

Thanks for your words of encouragement.

I think that my calorie(sp) intake is very low, around 1000 cals a day.

As for the exercise, I have a stationary bike that I cycle 5 mile a night on, but am looking to expand on this. I might try and buy a cheapish stepper machine also.

That is an extremly low calorie intake. Chances are you are going to lose muscle along with the fat. I agree with baldridges 100%; a balanced diet and exercise is the best way to lose weight. Once you reach your goal you may find it difficult to maintain the weight without already having good eating habits in place.

It seems that you arn't very concerned about muscle mass, and are completely focused on losing the fat (considering your extreme diet and pure cardio exercise routine). Muscle mass will help you lose the weight, and keep it off (as it burns calories even while resting).

So in addition to moving on to a balanced diet, I would highly reccomend lifting weights. Not only will this help you lose weight, but you will look even better when you reach your goals, and you can bet it'll put an end to kids picking on you.

But even if you just stick to the slim fast and stationary bike, we're behind you, Andy. Just keep working hard and you'll reach your goals!
:gl:

slim fast = sugar water at $6 a serving, dont touch it
make a diet with REAL foods, take examples from johns diet, and foods that you like
do your research, goto www.bodybuilding.com there are tons of great articles there, and the forums are really helpful
goto www.fitday.com and write down your diet, it will measure your cal's and your p/c/f %'ages, its free to sign up and its a great tool

but PLEASE dont flush your money down the toilet on slim-fast, you cant eat slim fast forever, the only reason it works is cos its so low calorie that your body has no choice but to lose weight, however when you start eating normally you will put that weight straight back on, also down the road you will find it harder and harder to lose the last bit of fat, because your body is storing as much fat as possible, cos its in "starvation mode" (over-simplified but still applies)

yea slim-fast is garbage. go with 10-11x calories your body weight with a 40protein/40 carb/20fat diet with cardio and weights. the real way to lose fat my friend. you're wasting your time and money with slim-fast. read, study and apply accordingly!

Hello, My name is Andrew or Andy whichever you prefer. I'm 16 years old and am overweight or FAT.

I've always been fat, I was 12lbs when I was born.... and now at the age of 16 I weigh just under 15 stone (210lbs) I have had kids picking on me all my life, so just after I found Johns site, I decided that enough was enough. My life had to change. I needed my self-confidence back.

I have been on a diet for a week and a bit now and have lot 6lbs (down to 204lbs) I hope to get to 168lbs so to achieve this I need to loose 36lb.

What I am doing sounds different to alot of you though. I am eating slim-fast. Shakes, soups, pasts, snak bars. I have these as my 3 meals a day, with some fruit aswell.

Anyway, this is me introduced, I hope that I have a good time here on my journey.

Andy :tu:


Please do yourself a favor and click on the link in my signature. It's not gospel, I'm not trying to preach anything, but I give a viewpoint you most likely have not heard yet that is intended for an audience exactly in your position - young, male, just starting to change their lifestyle and doing it exactly the way you're doing it.

What you do with the opinions I present is up to you and how you feel about what I say, but I've been where you are once, doing exactly what you're doing now; you can learn from my experience. It may be important, it may really help you out, and it may save you a lot of pain and questioning yourself.

Regardless, now that you've found this great place, and start to sort through and reflect upon the incredible wealth of information at your fingertips, you're going to be amazed at what you're capable of with the attitude you have right now. I can't wait to see your progress in the next couple of months, and I can't wait to see how you feel both in absolute terms, and about yourself too.

I have a great tip to save you some money. Go to the nearest grocery store, and buy yourself a pack of oreos. Take lots of water, and scarf down a thousand calories worth of oreos a day, and I guarantee you'll lose weight like crazy.

In all seriousness, to tell you the truth, doing the above probably would get you substantial weight loss, if that's all you really cared about. I used to tell that to my customers all the time, especially when they'd eye things like the Hollywood 48 Hr Diet(For those of you who aren't familiar with it, its a starve yourself on 400 calories a day of sugar water diet).

Being fit isn't just some temporary thing that you do for a little while, slack off, then return to do exercise once you start getting pudgy again. It's a whole lifestyle change, and I don't think Slim Fast should fit into anyone's long time diet. Now that you've found this forum, you have everything you need to be healthy and fit for the rest of your life, and fad diets will be a thing of the past.

Hello, My name is Andrew or Andy whichever you prefer. I'm 16 years old and am overweight or FAT.

I've always been fat, I was 12lbs when I was born.... and now at the age of 16 I weigh just under 15 stone (210lbs) I have had kids picking on me all my life, so just after I found Johns site, I decided that enough was enough. My life had to change. I needed my self-confidence back.

I have been on a diet for a week and a bit now and have lot 6lbs (down to 204lbs) I hope to get to 168lbs so to achieve this I need to loose 36lb.

What I am doing sounds different to alot of you though. I am eating slim-fast. Shakes, soups, pasts, snak bars. I have these as my 3 meals a day, with some fruit aswell.

Anyway, this is me introduced, I hope that I have a good time here on my journey.

Andy :tu:

Hi Andy,

First thing you need to do is ditch the slim-fast and begin eating more solid foods, you should also watch your carb intake, and try to limit pastas, white rice, potatos, etc...

Stick to whole wheat breads, sweet potatoes, oats and whole grains, and be sure not to go too heavy on the carbs, I would try shooting for a ratio of 40% protein, 30% carb and 30% fat, but be sure it's the good fats and not saturated.

At your weight, you definately should be taking in atleast 10x your body weight in calories, so for you, that would be around 2000, which should still allow you to lose weight at a slow but steady pace.

You also should spread your meals out to 5 or 6 a day and focus on better macronutrient breakdowns (Protein + Carb) and (Protein + Fat), reason for eating 5 or 6 times a day is because when you eat, your body burns extra calories by processing and digesting the food, in turn that raises your metabolism throughout the day as well, basically it's like keeping the furnace burning at all times.

And like many have already said, resistance training and proper diet is the best way to long term weight loss, so get started! :bb:

Either way, best of luck in the road ahead, i'm sure you'll attain your goals :tu:

Hi, I am also new to this site....I cant figure out how to get the percentage value for my protein, carbs, and fat. Math has never been one of my strong points can someone help?

Total Calories per day: 1500

How do I figure out the 40/40/20 percentage?

1gram proteins is app. 4 kcal, same for carbs, 1g fat is app. 9 kcal.

For your intake thats 150g carbs, 150g proteins, 33g fats.

i'm going to be different and say don't ditch the slimfast.

What you are doing now is working for you, so carry on.

But you are in the fun stage right now, it's fairly easy to lose weight so carry on with what you're doing and do your best to read up and find out what the best options are.

People are right, Slimfast isn't the best option and there's cheeper and better ways to lose weight, but just being told to dump it overnight and switch to a fully balanced planned and thought out dietry plan just like that isn't much help either, these things take time and it's important you know why you're eating what you are, rather than just copying someone else or what you're told.

Try making small changes, first 1000 cals is very low, you risk feeling tired and weak and they can kill your motivation, you WILL still lose a ton by going to 13-1600 cals.

Many will tell you fruit isn't good for weight loss becuase of the sugar, but it's better than most alternatives like snack bars cake and chocolate, so keep throwing in the fruit for now.

3 meals is good but 5 is better, try spread your food out a bit, even if you just break a large meal into 2 meals it'd help, you need to keep your body fed all day long.

If you can work on those things while reading up and considering what you are willing/able/prepared to do along the route of a healthy diet, you'll be well on your way :)

IronPhoenix – I took a look into your link, and it made for an interesting read. I think I get what you are saying about eating clean etc.

Jingo – I would say that you have offered the comment I was most hoping to hear about not ditching the slim-fast. I feel that it is working great at the moment, so I will continue to use it. Of course I will gradually switch back to eating normal clean foods, but I believe the biggest problem I have is portion control, and slim-fast offers me a great way of controlling this, as I know exactly how many cals I’m getting.

I am going to buy a set of weights I think to get in extra exercise and tone up a bit while I go…….. that is what John did I think?

ps. I have created a table on my white board to track my weight loss and intend to wieigh my self each week.

remember that the comment you most wan't to hear isn't always the right or best one :)

You should definatly plan to move off the slimfast asap, i'm just saying it is better than what you were doing and a usefull stop gap untill you get something long term organised.

But definatly up your cals straight away, 1000 cals just isn't enough by far.

Weights are definatly good, but remember you won't be seeing much if anything in the way of muscle gains while on such low diets, while cutting lifting is more a way to prevent losing muscle, as well as gaining strength, fitness and burning cals. If your cal deficiency isn't too great, you may well see muscle size gains tho while cutting.

Well i've got a shed load of slim-fast to use up now. :rolleyes:

Can I just up my cals by eating more fruit? The thing is, I don't really feel that deprived of energy etc from eating so few, just a little tired. Am I in ketosis or something?

Lol. Andy, I was almost afraid that you wernt coming back after we dogpiled you with all that diet info. Its almost too much..

I would be seriously suprised if you're in ketosis. You're taking in a lot of sugar/carbs for that.

I hate to say it, but adding fruit to your diet is just adding more sugar. Fruit is better for you then slim fast, but if you look at Johns diet, he hardly eats any at all. (When I'm in as good of shape as John, I'll definitly be adding more fruit to my diet, as long as it doesnt make me gain weight! I enjoy it too much.)

I know you want this to be as easy as possible, but to really get the most out of all this exercize, and to really get the results you want, you gotta eat foods that are good for you; dark green veggies, protiens, complex carbs and unsaturated fats.

Is a good idea, when I first started up, all I had were 2 10 lb hex dumbbells. I had no idea where to start, but by just using those, albeit with extremely crappy form, I was able to get some very nice bicep definition. And that's how I got interested in the whole lifting thing.

Try a can of tuna, or if you don't like tuna, I personally prefer a can of kidney beans or garbanzo beans. Those veggie protein isn't as good as animal sources for the most part, one can fill about 80% of your daily fiber needs.

SW Garbanzo beans
Servings per container:3.5

Calories: 80
Total fat: 1.5 g
Cholesterol: 0
Sodium: 460 mg
Total carbs: 18g
Dietary fiber: 7g
Sugars: 2g
Protein 6g

KEEP IN MIND THAT ONE CAN = 3.5 SERVINGS. So if you're eating the whole thing, multiply all these values by 3.5

Only thing to watch for is the sodium levels, which is kind of hard to avoid with canned stuff

Ok cut back on the fruit. Eat tuna (I like tuna so no problems). I need to get :read: because at the moment I have the knowledge of a fly.

Just a question, if the sugary slim-fast is so bad for me then how come I can still loose weight eating/drinking it?

a matter of calorie cutting. Simply put, calories are the energy that your body needs to function. Your brain, your organs, your muscles, they all burn calories.

The general rule of weight loss/gain is, if you eat more calories then your body burns up in a day, it takes those calories, and stores them as fat so that they can use them later in case you find yourself in a position where you can't get enough food. If you take in LESS calories then you burn in a day, your body burns into those previously stores fat pockets, and using those for energy.

The reason why drinking slim fast works is because you're simply using slim fast to replace a meal. You said yourself that you were taking in 1000 calories a day. In the US, most, if not all nutritional labels are based on a 2000 calories diet. This assumes that the average person burns 2000 calories a day, hence needs 2000 calories to replenish that(This idea is becoming rather dated).

Anyways, back on point. Since your body burns +/- 2000 calories a day, and you're taking in 1000, that means you're burning 1000 calories worth of energy that your body has previously stored which generally takes the form of fat.

This is probably oversimplified, so if anyone has any corrections or what not, feel free to chime in.

I think(?) a lot of people are on this forum/website is not just to lose weight, but to get into shape. Everyone knows how to dramatically lose weight, but losing weight, and gaining a muscular build and overall health at the same time is a tad more difficult.

I would think, that by the time most of the people here are done with whatever cutting/bulking/whatever, they aren't just going to be skinny so that they can fit into the crowd, but they're going to have body's that they are proud of.

The techniques and information here will show you how to maintain your weight for life with ease, so that maybe after a year or two, you won't have to touch another slim fast/diet whatever/whatever lite ever again. I think that's the most important thing that separates this forum from the other weight loss forums.

On a side note, I hate diet food. I think the food industry is just trying to take advantage of people who just don't have access to the right information. Any foods with the label "lite" "diet" or whatever, should all be warning signs that secretly say, you know, you probably shouldn't be eating this stuff anyways, which is why we had to make it lite in the first place. One of my favorites lines was I think about Special K, the cereal. At one point they were claiming that people could automatically lose weight by eating their cereal. Look on the fine print on the back, and their "diet" plan says that you have to replace 2 of your main meals with bowls of cereal and can't eat more then 1200 calories a day in order to achieve that weight loss.

If you think about it, the diet industry is an industry. They're in it for the profit. Having people permanently lose weight doesn't benefit them in the slightest, as it just takes away from their customer base.

Anyways, this is turning into a gigantic rant. Die fad diets. You die and go to hell.

Wow, massive post inflation, maybe I'll hit senior member by tonight

Just curious. I'm still trying to eat fairly clean but am trying to up my calories slowly as I get down to the body fat I want. Sometimes I'm in such a hurry or so busy about all I have time for is a slim-fast type drink. Like say 30 minutes before or after a work-out. Does anyone think it would be beneficial then? Suggestions? I already eat 1 to 3 cans of tuna a day.

My daily diet consists of the following:
egg whites
tuna
rice-usually white, sometimes brown
chicken breasts
yogurt

fatboylvr2000
well I've looked on the slim-fast cans and it doesn't actually list the ingredients. SO I imagine they are just sugary water. Although at 200 odd cals a time. They are fairly filling and require no preperation, so if you can afford the extra cals in the day then why not have then when in need of a quick fix.

I used slim-fast for breakfast before I found this site. I used to eat no breakfast, so it was an improvement for me.
I still use it - mix in some protein powder, and you've got a pretty darn good shake! I use vanilla slim fast, and vanilla powder. Pretty darn tasty.
I'm not using slim-fast as it's meant to be - I eat plenty of solid foods. On days that I need 200 + more calories and some additional protein, it works well for me.

Thanks guys, that's the way I'm using it, not to lose weight necessarily but it keeps me from grabbing a donut or candy bar. I've backed way off it lately cause I'm trying to cut some more before pool season.

By the way the fatboylvr2000 is in reference to the fact that I like the Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Slim fast generally is expensive and focuses too much on carbs and sugar - A good Meal Replacement Powder will probably cost you less, and be miles better for you. Labrada Nutrition low carb ones are great, and the regulars are pretty good also.

If ultra convenience is what you need - at a stab you could try the various RTD (ready to drink) things from EAS etc. Although they arent as good as an MRP.

Slimfast aint no good - who wants to look like a slimfast dieter anyhow :|

I actually use a generic "slim-fast" from my local grocery store. It's like 4.99 for 6. I'll definitely check into the MRP's though. Thanks.

You know, I've found that a protein shake does a better job of curbing my appetite than a slim fast, and I'm not even talking about the MRP kind of protein shake. I'm most tempted for food at night when I get home from work, and if I have one of my protein shakes right away when I get home I find that in about 10 minutes the cravings are pretty much gone. The protein shake is something that I'm going to have anyway... I just try to position them to kill two birds with one stone. They don't taste quite as good as a slim fast, but 10 minutes after you have it, the taste is gone, you're not hungry, you've just stocked up on protein and taken in relatively few calories. It makes me eat my meals slower and not want seconds. Works for me.