Thursday, September 27, 2007

Losing Weight???

Xmichra Answers

This was sent to Aunt Babz via email...

Dear Aunt Babz,

I am 15 years old. Currently I am 5 Foot 9 inches an I am 151 pounds. I play field hockey, basketball and lacrosse. I am very active but that doesnt seem to be enough. I want to be 120 pounds but I dont know how to go about doing so or keep the motivation. I need advice cause I just am not sure what to do. Please help. My friend just lost 30 pounds and has been rubbing it in my face. I have wanted to lose my whight for a long time but I just can't. Please I really need the advice because I just don't know what to do.

Kat.

Dear Kat,

Struggling with weight is something every teen girl goes through. And I will tell you that I had so many issues with this and an eating disorder that I know in my heart I am a great person to ask this question. Because I am going to show you something, that you might not believe.

You are classified as a HEALTHY WEIGHT with a BMI (body mass index) of 71%. I will show you… (you are fifteen, so I just totaled a b-day using January first of this year. But the date isn’t really important, it’s the age).

BMI Calculator for Child and Teen: Results

Calculate again: English | Metric

Information Entered

Age: 15 years 8 months	Sex: Girl
Birth Date: January 01, 1992	Height: 5 feet 9 inch(es)
Date of Measurement: September 27, 2007	Weight: 151 pounds

Results

Based on the height and weight entered, the BMI is 22.3, placing the BMI-for-age at the 71st percentile for girls aged 15 years 8 months. This teen has a healthy weight.

underweight, less than the 5^th percentile
healthy weight, 5^th percentile up to the 85^thpercentile
at risk of overweight, 85^th to less than the 95^th percentile
overweight, equal to or greater than the 95^th percentile

What does this mean?

BMI is calculated using your child’s weight and height and is then used to find the corresponding BMI-for-age percentile for your child’s age and sex.

BMI-for-age percentile shows how your child’s weight compares to that of other children of the same age and sex. For example, a BMI-for-age percentile of 65% means that the child’s weight is greater than that of 65% of other children of the same age and sex.

Based on the height and weight entered, the BMI is 22.3, placing the BMI-for-age at the 71st percentile for girls aged 15 years 8 months. This teen has a healthy weight.

Maintaining a healthy weight throughout childhood and adolescence may reduce the risk of becoming overweight or obese as an adult.

Now. We have established that you really don’t need to lose weight. But you are in the percentage flow that you can lose some weight (not a lot) and still be healthy. That is a strong sentence there… you CAN lose weight safely BUT you do not have too. You are healthy, and in a great range for your age and height.

Losing weight can be tricky, but if done right can feel great and not make you look like a dried up skeleton. You are active enough, so the exercise portion is fine (and very important for you metabolic rate).

Please keep in mind that hormones are fluctuating in your body (you can’t help this) so your weight may go up or down daily by five pounds or so. It’s just nature making things grow and widen the way we are suppose to. So don’t get discouraged and get into a really bad eating disorder because you thinking eating right isn’t working. It will, it just takes a few weeks to really see all the changes. You could be losing weight in fat, and gaining more in muscle tissue.. Which does weigh more. So don’t get hung up on the scale counts. Look at your body, and you will see where the changes are. Also, if you are taking any kind of birth control pill, that will likely make you have ‘water weight’ and that is something that you cannot control as such.. but If you increase your water intake from the standard of eight 8oz glasses a day to ten 8oz glasses a day then that should help a little.

Really though, to lose weight it breaks down into these three things:

Eating healthy foods
Participating in physical activity on most (preferably all) days of the week (Limiting television viewing, internet use or other sitting and stationary entertainment)
Drinking eight 8oz glasses of water each day.

If you need help on what healthy foods are you can try these sites:

http://www.nms.on.ca/Secondary/healthy_food_choices_checklist.htm

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=570

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index_e.html

But the one message that I do want to make clear is that you do not actually need to lose weight. And that if you choose to do so, you should do it healthy and clean. No artificial drug supplements, no crash diets, and dear god girl if you tell me you want to go on any kind of soup diet I will kick your butt. Seriously. Those methods may have results, but they are SHORT TERM and do massive damage to your body and self esteem. Take the better road here, and make sure that you are treating your body as it should be treated.. you only have one body and it will not last forever on diet pills and bulimia. Hell, that will send you further to the grave.

Let me know if you need anything else, but I am sure that you will be great as long as you respect the body you have and know it’s limitations.

refrence: BMI calculator for teens and adults: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/index.htm

~Ask Aunt B~