From Michelle, Age 14 - 08/30/02 - IP#: 63.168.31.xxx  Click here to reply  
Here are some tips and such for all of you. I hope you find them helpful!
I've been reading a lot of posts lately that have made me really worried for people on this board. They are trying to take the easy way out, which, as it ends up , really isn't the best way to go at it. You won't lose weight if you starve yourself (because when you eat your body will put the weight back on), you'll only end up hurting yourself. Don't try to throw up, that only hurts you more. First of all, you don't really lose that much weight by throwing up, second, you can damage the lining of your throat from the acids of your stomach when you throw up, and third, there are definately quicker and easier, yes easier ways to lose weight. The three main things you need to do to lose weight are A) keep track of what you eat. Set a calorie limit, but make sure it is no less than 1200 calories. If you eat less than 1200 calories a day, and then go back to 2000 calories after you lose all your wieght, then your body reacts to under 1200 as starving and will double pack the wieght on when you go back to normal foods, trying to keep the body from starvation. 2)Make sure you exercise. For beginning people this should be about 10 minutes a day 5-7 days a week, working up to about 40-60 minutes of activity a day. You can also break down your work out time to about 10 minutes a time 1-6 times a day. But under 10 minute bursts won't do you much good. Also remember if you lift weights you should give your body a rest everyother day, or do arms and back one day, and legs the next. If you strength train your whole body at once, then you may want to do cardio work (running, walking, bicycling, swimming) on those off days. The same goes for most walkers and runners, you need "off days" between long runs and walks, which you can strength train during. It all works out in a nice cycle. 3) Make sure to drink WATER, not gatorade, not pop, preferably not flavored water because it has a lot of unnessicary sugar in it, REGULAR WATER. You should always keep water with you whenever you work out. If you have trouble making your self drink water, or keeping track of how much water you drink, fill up a gallon, or two half gallon empty milk jugs with water, and only drink from those during the day. If you have trouble drinking all of it, keep trying to drink as much as you can, but if you know you haven't drank as much as you could, again, you may want to punish yourself by sleeping on the floor, or if you did drink all of it, reward yourself, but NOT WITH FOOD!! Buy a new shirt, paint your nails, do something enjoyable.
I hope this helped all of you. I'll try and post regularly about concerns for people I have on this board and things I have been able to find. If you have any specific questions about anything, feel free to reply and ask me. I know many things from my years here, and if I don't know the answer, I will try to find it for you. Good luck to all of you. ~Michelle