I'm really unhappy with my weight. The last 3-4 years I've been a very chunky kid, with an unhealthy weight for my age. About a year and a half ago I did a number of things to finally try and lose weight (something I've wanted to do since I became chunky). I stopped having 1-2 sodas and a bowl of ice cream a day (it was a delicious but horrid lifestyle) I removed items from my lunch that high high amounts of sugar in them. This ended with some pretty positive effects. Two years ago I was 120-130 pounds, extremely unhealthy for my age. Now, after cutting large amounts of sugar out of my life, I'm around 130 pounds. No difference means o lost and gained weight. A good amount of fat disappeared and height came into play. This is where my dillema starts. I'm still getting taller, of course, but I'm gaining weight now from it rather than having it replace the fat pounds. Currently I'm not really skinny, I have a decent amount of belly fat left (often times a shirt will cover it up and make me look thinner), big thighs, a fat face, and a noticeable butt. It's been like this for months now, where there's no change in anything. Cutting off sugar honestly made me lose WEIGHT rather than BODY FAT. I want to get a haircut and make my hair shorter all around and looking more nice, but with all the face fat I have I look much better with longer hair. My face looks less fat if it's long. My self-esteem, while already being low for a while, seems to be plummeting from all of this body fat. I'm trying, I really am, to lose it. I do exercises almost every night, I'm trying to go on a long walk everyday (I don't have an approximate distance I walk), and am trying to cut down the amount of food I eat, along with the type of stuff I eat, despite being a growing teenager who needs to eat as much as he can. My stomach fat seems to increase every time I eat. I look kind of bloated. I don't know if this happens to everyone, but with how bloated I look I hate it. With all the stuff I'm trying, you'd think it'd work, that I would lose some body fat, but no. It hasn't been. I feel like I'm getting worse. Recently I've tried to starve myself, barely eat anything, so I don't look all bloated and fat. Key word is tried. I find it really hard to do this. I've tried it a couple of times in the last month. Im feeling more discouraged in the last couple of days, though, because someone told me that you end up being fatter after starving yourself for a while and then starting to eat again. That scares me that I could be worse than I am now again. I really need some advice on how to lose body fat, along with how to fix my horrid self esteem in every area of my life (social life, how I look, how athletic I am, how my grades are dropping drastically). I hate myself and I want to fix it, it's just I need someone to help me by telling me how. I'm becoming more dangerous to myself than I've ever been.
How tall are you? 130 pounds doesn't seem big. The best thing to do if you want to keep weight off is to be aware of portion sizes and calories, and find healthy and fillings foods you can eat on a daily basis. You mentioned you cut out soda, which is good, because the body doesn't register liquid calories the same way it does with food calories, so it doesn't give you feelings of fullness nearly as easily. You can also find a calculator online that gives you an estimate of how many calories you burn daily, and make a habit of consuming the daily calorie limit for your goal weight. Starving yourself and drastic dieting won't help, it has to be a lifestyle change you can consistently live with. and maintain.
You moreso want to cut down the type of food you eat, not necessarily how much food you eat. You're basically starving yourself doing that by eating less, and I've done that myself which didn't work out for me. Eat clean foods, less processed meals. Generally speaking, to lose weight, you want to burn more calories than you consume. Doing the opposite (eat more, burn less) will allow you to gain weight. Every so often, treat yourself. I usually would go out to eat once every two weeks. Going cold turkey is extremely hard but nonetheless possible if you put your mind to it. Also, I want to remind you that you are still growing. A friend of mine was quite overweight in elementary, but now he's super fit and quite toned. If you saw his before and after photos you too would realize it is possible. It is a lifestyle change you'll have to commit to, but it's good you're getting a head start!
