Can i lose 30 pounds before my birthday in January?

17th December, 2008

I Am 12 at 180 pounds and need to lose 30 pounds before my Birthday in January. Will walking a mile or more 5 days a week, eat less and healthier, and drink juice and water instead of soda like i do help me achieve this goal of mine? Also what some other ways to do so.

At 12 years of age, you really should not be thinking about such a drastic diet. As an adult, your goal is to ONLY lose one pound (if you have about 10 pounds to your goal) a week and if you have a more significant weight loss needed, ONLY lose two pounds a week.

There is no “fast” way to go about this! Your next goal is to ensure your losing GOOD weight. Not water weight from a pill which you will eventually gain back and have it hurt you while it has you dehydrated. Not putting you in starvation mode where your burning mostly muscle and not fat.

A better / more realistic goal would be about 8 to 10 lbs by January. Why 30?

Remember, calories in minus calories out is good if that number is negative, but if you take it too far you will hurt yourself!!!

You can figure out roughly what your BMR is by many different calculators online.

Once you get that, you need to figure out your normal activity and add it to your BMR.

Then finally, add your exercise calories.

If you are not eating enough calories based on your current weight and activity level, you will end up burning muscle instead of fat (your ultimate goal). Burning muscle hurts you cause you will lower your metabolism and burn less calories in a day! It takes work for your body to keep muscle (repairing it and building it), so it is the first to go if your body thinks its not getting enough calories!

Try going to www.myfitnesspal.com the forum on there has excellent advice and the whole program does a really good in helping you be away of how many calories your putting in and how many you should be burning off!

I have a few of my “close to overweight” Marines on it and it has worked wonders for them! Including two that are having a tough time losing their weight after a pregnancy!!!

Back to you being 12… You really need to be careful about dieting. What you really should do is talk to your PE/Health teacher about better ways to approach this. She should be mentioning serving size and calories in / calories out. Because your young, its difficult to determine your BMR rate (how many calories you would use when your only resting). However, if you start counting your calories and become conscious of your serving sizes, you will quickly just see how much that 32oz Coke has in it or that piece of cake has 400 calories.

The final part is to make sure you start doing something cardio. My best suggestion is running. You need to exercise, figure out the calories you use during exercise, and EAT them!

If you have questions, please let me know!

3 Responses to “Can i lose 30 pounds before my birthday in January?”

  1. Twilight says:

    It will be hard. That is too little excersise to reach your goal. Try cardio for 30 minutes at least 5-6 days a week, consume 1,450 calories of good food or less, and it would be great if all you drank was water and skim milk,because juice contains a lot of added sugars which isn’t good for your body or your goal. If you need a treat once in a while, have a 100 calorie snack pack.
    References :

  2. complicatedtallblonde says:

    this will pry get you there. I think you are on the right track. The only thing is read ALL the fine print. lots of juices say that they are 100% real fruit juice. Then under it in small print it says from concentrate. You don’t want any juices that arent 100 from really fruit.
    References :

  3. Tim W says:

    At 12 years of age, you really should not be thinking about such a drastic diet. As an adult, your goal is to ONLY lose one pound (if you have about 10 pounds to your goal) a week and if you have a more significant weight loss needed, ONLY lose two pounds a week.

    There is no “fast” way to go about this! Your next goal is to ensure your losing GOOD weight. Not water weight from a pill which you will eventually gain back and have it hurt you while it has you dehydrated. Not putting you in starvation mode where your burning mostly muscle and not fat.

    A better / more realistic goal would be about 8 to 10 lbs by January. Why 30?

    Remember, calories in minus calories out is good if that number is negative, but if you take it too far you will hurt yourself!!!

    You can figure out roughly what your BMR is by many different calculators online.

    Once you get that, you need to figure out your normal activity and add it to your BMR.

    Then finally, add your exercise calories.

    If you are not eating enough calories based on your current weight and activity level, you will end up burning muscle instead of fat (your ultimate goal). Burning muscle hurts you cause you will lower your metabolism and burn less calories in a day! It takes work for your body to keep muscle (repairing it and building it), so it is the first to go if your body thinks its not getting enough calories!

    Try going to http://www.myfitnesspal.com the forum on there has excellent advice and the whole program does a really good in helping you be away of how many calories your putting in and how many you should be burning off!

    I have a few of my “close to overweight” Marines on it and it has worked wonders for them! Including two that are having a tough time losing their weight after a pregnancy!!!

    Back to you being 12… You really need to be careful about dieting. What you really should do is talk to your PE/Health teacher about better ways to approach this. She should be mentioning serving size and calories in / calories out. Because your young, its difficult to determine your BMR rate (how many calories you would use when your only resting). However, if you start counting your calories and become conscious of your serving sizes, you will quickly just see how much that 32oz Coke has in it or that piece of cake has 400 calories.

    The final part is to make sure you start doing something cardio. My best suggestion is running. You need to exercise, figure out the calories you use during exercise, and EAT them!

    If you have questions, please let me know!
    References :

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