Weight Loss

Ok so ive been on a diet for a week now and ive actually GAINED almost 4 pounds. I really need help an support im trying to loose about 10 pounds in a month because im going off to school. ANYSUPPORT WILL BE GREAT! THANKYOU!

Are you limiting foods early in the day, having high calorie snacks when you're stressed/bored then eating too much later on?  How have you gained weight?

What is your current regime like?  (Calories burned a day? Calories consumed a day?  Exercise routine?)

Also, what are your stats?  (Height, Age, Weight)

Eat plenty of green vegetables. They are low in calories and high in nutrition. Also lift weights in circuit fashion to get a cardio workout plus stimulate your lean body tissue and speed up your metabolism.

is your period coming soon? because women can actually gain about 5lbs or more during this time... it then goes away after you've finished, but I like to avoid the scales during TTOM

It's difficult to say without more info.

Have courage however, and patience. The human body is an extremely complicated mechanism/system that has worked for thousands of years in all kinds of conditions and has it's own logic and "rules". So go figure, it's difficult enough to learn to use like a computer or drive a vehicle, or speak a language, figures how hard it is to "handle" your own body. So think of this as just the beginning of a long journey to know and "fine tune" this wonderful "organism" and "machine" and so on that your organism is. It's a whole universe to discover, between your body and foods and spices and vegetables and fruit and cuisines etc. Any step on that voyage is better then stagnation and worsening, even if you make mistakes (to learn from).

So some basics I picked up around here... Eat like a certain deficit below the calories you burn just by existing (calculate them, maybe they are more then you think) plus activities. The deficit shouldn't be too big else your body goes in starvation mode (a mechanism created in those thousands of years of dangers) and doesn't burn fats because it think it's famine. Besides the body can only transform so much fat in a day, if it still needs energy it goes for the muscles.

That said, eat many vegetables, they fill you up just fine, like have a salad or raw vegetables in general before a meal. You can also snack on vegetables (prepare some vegetable bits for the day) as well as fruits to keep the metabolism up (not tons and tons and tons of fruit necessarily though, analyse it for sugars maybe, but still you can eat enough to fill you up I guess).

More small meals is better then few big ones.

Study a good breakfast. Maybe a smoothie with fruit and (3-5 counted) hazelnuts and a teaspoon flaxseed can be a part of it?

Don't obsess with numbers and listen to your body.

Try to move as much as possible, even simple things count like getting off the public transport a few stops early and walking, some stretching, etc.

Drink enough liquids (maybe herb teas or mint or something, no sugar).

Give yourself time.

Find sources of lean protein. I usually try to build my lunch and dinner around this formula : lots of vegetables - some whole cereals maybe - some lean protein - a tiny bit of fat maybe (half of teaspoon of good quality olive oil maybe or 3 hazelnuts), maybe some fruit (although I mostly eat fruit separately). A good protein source is legumes, chickpeas, beans, lentile. There are surprisingly various recipies for those - try creams and fat free versions of Apple+Chickpea curry or something (avoid frying and do the soffritto with water) and try to interpret world cuisins in low-fat healthy versions.

Avoid complex stuff like strange sauces, foods for which you don't know what they contain, "hidden" calories like sugar (it's present in absurd places!) and fats (also), read the labels on foods carefully, keep it simple.

There are many interesting and unexpected things to try, read up on various threads on this site and learn bit by bit.

I repeat, give yourself.

You'll manage.

Go for it. Have a nice day.
.

.EDIT:[ PS: I understand the going to school problem.. But the body [edit] and it must be respected because it stays with us for the rest of our lives []. I know very well that the school can be a cruel place... However try to breath deep and think long term in this sense as well... Self confidence and the consideration from others comes from many things and not only just a few pounds less. And a few weeks-months from now you'll still be going to school, so if they see you thin later on that'll still be ok, and you can say that the previous weight was just some summer fat etc. Try to be creative and appreciate your health. I mean, I've been looking back to my life and I realized how much energy and time I wasted trying to please others. If I had concentrated long term on reasonable projects that made sense to ME in the first place, I would've achieved much better results, and ironically would have been more appreciated by others as well, because of those results, be it my immediate surroundings or other more appreciative people. Say you like an activity, you concentrate on that when you're at school instead of stressing on what the people around you expect of you, and a few years down the road you are great at that certain thing and people at school or maybe in college or new friends from elsewhere can respect you tons and you can say "ah it wasn't easy cultivating this passion through the dispersive school years but I made it and now I'm glad". It was like that for manu successful people, I wish I was more like that, I mean, I understand that at the moment this sounds abstract, I'm just telling you what I would say to myself if I could travel in time. Sorry if it was too preachy.]

The best way to make you are eating no more than the calories you think you are getting, is to weigh and measure your food.  A lot of foods have portions like 1 potato, 1/2 fillet, 1 thigh etc.  The problem is that size varies.  I happen to buy large potatoes, large pieces of fish, large chickens etc and when I started measuring I realized that I was eating more than I thought.  I use a postage scale (they're usually cheaper than food scales) and weigh my food to make sure I know what my portion size is.  That way I'm not fooling myself into thinking I am eating less calories than I really am.   The bonus of this is that now I know what a healthy portion looks like and even when I'm not home with my postage scale I can take a reasonable portion.

Good luck and let me know if this helps.

I always error on the side of more. If I eat an apple I always log it as a large one etc.

Get a scale for your food and a scale for yourself. Measure and log everything that goes into your mouth.  Log all of your activity. 

DRINK YOUR WATER.  Not soda, juice, milk, tea.  H2O is the trick.  Take your body weight in pounds  and divide by 2.  That's how much water you need to drink per day. 

Unless you have some reason not to, take a good multivitamin every day.  I keep mine next to my toothbrush so that I remember to take them.

Make sure that your deficit isn't too high.  I'll paste in what I usually do when explaining this to people. 

Let's say that you swim for an hour and that burns 650 calories.  I'll use myself here, because I don't see your stats.  I'm female, 40, 5'8" and 200#. Your calorie deficit should be 500-700 calories per day. 

My BMR is 1600. 

1600 + 650 = 2250

2250 - 700 = 1550 <-- this is what you eat for a 700 calorie deficit. 

2250 - 500 = 1750 <-- this is what you eat for a 500 calorie deficit.

It's not all that hard :)  You can go here - http://www.phord.com/cc/ - plug in your stats and get your BMR.

If you can do that and none of it works, you need to see your doctor. 

if it is before your period, women can gain up to 5 pounds beforehand. Also, I noticed when I cut out soda all together I lost weight just by doing that.

Keep Water on you and use the littl' packets to enhance flavor like "Somethin Lite" which has little sodium and no cals or put fresh lime in your water.It taste really yummy and you forget how plain water can be.

Also, are you working out? If so, people can gain a few pounds when first starting out because you are gaining muscle. If that is not the case, try changing up your workout!

Hope this helps!

 

Laurie.