thanks

You probably want to lose FAT, not weight. Weight is fat, but also includes muscle, water, bone, and stool. 30lbs before summer is doable. Start now though.

To lose fat:
1.DON'T BELIVE THOSE FAD DIETS!
2.Eat healthy and eat about 500 calories a day less than you normally do (DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF!)
3.Do light/moderate cardio 3 to 5 times a week for 30 to 45 minutes each time.
4.Do some strength training to make sure you lose fat and not muscle. Don't worry, you won't look like the hulk if you lift weights.
5.You should lose about 1-2lbs per week. If you lose more than that, chances are the rest is stool, water weight, or even muscle mass.
6.Weigh yourself only once a week at the same time (ie every Friday morning). Your weight fluctuates a lot during any 24hour period because of water and food intake and also bowel movements.
7. Be patient and be smart.

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!

1. no junk food (chips, pop, chocolate bars.)
2. do one activity daily (basketball, swimming ect)
3. walk everyday for 30 minutes.
4. snack on things with low calories.
5. when you are hungry, snack on some carrots or rice cakes.
6. for meals reduce your food intake, don’t SO much food.
7. as for liquids, only drink water (nothing else for drinks.)
8. sit ups/pushups before bed.

I hope this helps!
Im sure it will!
xoxo
Laura