Help! I am STUCK.

[ineedhelp324]

Okay, so I'm a 13-year-old boy, who just happens to way 265lbs. I know, this is extremely unhealthy and I probably won't make it for much longer if I don't lose this. My problem is that I've got no place to buy the book, no credit-card, and absolutely no idea on what to do. I've tried my own ways of this, but I never keep to it. I just need an online resource or something, just anything, that can help me start this. I really don't want to lose my life for not taking care of myself or paying attention to what I was doing.


Thanks

[liv]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

You are 13 so you really need to include your parents to help you out. Discuss your thoughts with them and with your doctor. Together you should be able to come up with something. Good luck to you.

[not2late]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

I agree with Liz. You need to speak with your parents so they can bring you to your pediatrician to have you checked out. Overweight is sometimes due to medical conditions that can only be diagnosed and treated by a physician.

Furthermore, you are a 13 year old boy who is growing and developing into an adult. Atkins, like many other weight loss diets, does not support the increased nutritional needs of a growing teen.

You need the help of professionals who are accustomed to dealing with growing teenagers because they will need to monitor you closely so that you lose weight, but don't compromise your growth and development---that's a fine line and you only get one shot at growing into an adult.

So please involve your parents and your physician in this.

[sdespradel]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

I agree with both moderator; a Doctor is your best choice....
But I want to add (in case you do not have probability to see an specialist) and without knowing your habits, that normally if you try to change your food choices to fruit, veggies, lean protein and also change the serving sizes of your meals and increase your activities level...these little changes should work great for you since your metabolism still naturally active. Try to spend less time watching TV or seating around (Internet included, jeje).
I now you've probably hear this before...but it is what it is, take care of yourself and hope not seeing you around this forum when you are 18....GOOD LUCK

[ineedhelp324]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

Liv; My parents and I have discussed this subject many times, and we've agreed to see a specialist about it, but we can't really afford it now, mainly because we're still paying my medical bills from my kidney problems. I know that I will have a few extra pounds from my kidney disease, but the other weight is purely from not paying attention, or even caring, for that matter, to what I was doing, and the fact the I was not getting exersize that I needed to balance out my calories. My diet, is actually quite healthy for a teen of my age, in my opinion at least. I usually eat either a bowl of cereal like lucky charms, regular cheerios, or raisin bran. Sometimes I'll eat biscuits and gravy, if I have a friend over for the weekend (which is admitedly pretty rare), or waffles. For lunch, I eat what the school provides on schooldays, which is usually an entrée of meat, a side of vegetables, a ½pint of chocolate milk, and some type of wheat product. For dinner I usually have a few bites of meat, or pasta, or whatever my mom makes. However, on the weekends, I do tend to eat a little bit more, and I snack a bit more too, but that really couldn't make a 100lb difference, could it? I usually snack on crackers, like cheezits or something.
Anyways, even if I can't go on the Atkin's diet, I can still get the help and support, as I mentioned before, without that awkwardness of my parents, even though I love them . Sorry this was so long, it's just that I've been telling myself to do this for a few years, and now, I need to do it. If I don't do it, I'll die trying. I'm serious about this.

Thanks for being so supportive!

[SunnySmile501]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

Especially because you have kidney disease is another reason that you MUST do this with a supportive doctor's help. Dr. Atkins was a fantastic physician, and he said that the people that could not do this diet is pregnant women and those with kidney disease. You probably retain a lot of fluid from your kidney disease.

You can go a long way towards reaching a healthy weight by not eating processed foods and as little sugar as possible. Especially the boxed cereal in the morning. Eat oatmeal with fruit. Eat lots of veggies and fruit during the day. Try to make your grains whole grains. White flour products spike your blood sugar as bad as eating pure sugar. If you drink sodas, stop.

And, please don't shut out your parents. It's their job to try to get you to a healthy weight and optimum health. You are old enough to take responsibility for eating healthy snacks and not over eating, but the main responsibility for you and your health for the next five years is on your parents. If you talk to them about your desire to lose weight and get healthy, you will probably be able to get them to provide more healthy choices of food at least at home.

[CuzMommySaysSo]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

You need to focus on eating healthy foods more than the junk foods. Instead of eating say cheezits (and we all know they are tempting!) try eating an apple or another piece of fruit. At school, if you have a choice between hamburgers, pizza, or say grilled chicken...opt for the chicken. Do you like veggies??

[eclectikat]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

Hey there....ineedhelp324




welcome to the board. I am glad for you that you are looking for help here and I promise this is a great place to get support. I agree... don't do this on your own... you have some serious issues at play health wise and you need to be careful. As far as the book goes... go the library... when you cannot afford a book... that is what libraries are for!
Read it and read it until you understand it... which can be tough. For alot of us here... we had to read this book over and over again for the switch to happen in our heads.. where we understand what Dr Atkins is teaching us.

are your parents overweight? would they consider doing the Atkins diet/ low carb living along with you? even for a couple weeks? You never know!

lastly... I want to suggest to you to use a website called WWW.FITDAY.COM
It is free to sign up, and it is a great program to use to monitor what you are eating and how many calories/carbs you are eating. I suggest that you just spend the next two weeks logging into fitday everything you eat normally speaking... Seeing it in print is really helpful for a person to start making better decisions. For example. Enter in your bowl of Lucky Charms... and compare it to other cereals... look at the carb count for each...While we all LOVE Lucky Charms... THEY ARE DANGEROUS to our health... logging your food this way should help you to be more aware of the food you eating... and that is a great start.
ALSO... once you are comfortable logging your food intake... start trying keep your calories lower than you had previously done. It is said that you need 10 calories for every lb of weight. So for you you would need to eat 2650 calories per day. I BET you are eating more than that now!, and as you lose weight you lower your caloric intake.

I am proud of you for wanting to make some changes, Just be careful, don't do it alone, don't do it without Guidance... We are here for you!

Kathy

[not2late]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

I completely agree with Sunny. If you have "kidney problems", you MUST consult with a physician before attempting Atkins. Dr. Atkins wrote that people with kidney problems should not go on his diet without proper medical supervision.

So please consult with a doctor. Pursuing Atkins without medical supervision might be deadly for you.

[ineedhelp324]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

To SunnySmile501: Thanks for your help, and I have realized that I need to help myself before it's too late. As for my parents, I absolutely do not shut them out, and I tell them anything and everything that is on my mind. My mother and I have a very close relationship, and it's the same for my father and I. We've been discussing going to see a nutritionist, but I would like to try to get some personal results before I go to see a nutritionist. As for my doctor, we just moved in September, and the experiences we've had with doctors where we live now hasn't been to good, so my doctor is back in my old city, which is about 90miles from where I live now, around a 2-hour drive. This is another HUGE obstacle.

As for the kidney disease, I have a condition where my ureters (the tubes that connect your kidneys to your bladder) are the size of a 2-year-old's. Also, my bladder is extremely deformed, and my right kidney is dieing. I don't retain too much water, but this could also be a couple of pounds' worth.

My mother and I have been discussing going to see a doctor that my aunt went to see, and she lost 50lbs. Hopefully, we can go to see him, but in the mean time, I would like to shed some weight, the right way, so I can at least get a start, and feel more comfortable.

Thank you for all of your support!

[SunnySmile501]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

Just make sure that you are aware that with any kind of kidney problem/disorder, you have to be careful with too much protein (meat, poultry, fish, dairy). You probably do not know that Atkins is high fat and not high protein. Most people think it is high protein and that they can eat all the meat they can hold. That is not accurate. Eating fat is not what makes you fat, eating fat with carbohydrates is what makes you fat (cheeseburger on a bun).

I wish you had a better experience with the doctors in your new area. Doctors are sadly deficient in matters of nutrition, even when they are good doctors for health.

If you see a nutritionist, make sure they are aware of your kidney problems. I read what you wrote on another thread, saying you wouldn't live to see 20 if you didn't get the weight off. The same thing might happen if you eat way too much protein and don't drink enough plain water.

Atkins is all about whole, unprocessed foods. You could go a long way towards getting started by cutting out the processed foods and adding fresh meats, fats like real butter, olive oil, avocado, nuts, eating lots of fresh or frozen veggies and whole fruits (fruit juice is bad for you). Stay away from low fat products. They replace healthy fat with sugar. Use full fat salad dressings.

My grandson is 14 and he has learned that he loves to cook. He loves to taste-test my recipes for the low carb cookbook I am writing. I teach him how to make low carb, healthy stuff and he goes home and makes it for himself. He's a really skinny little kid, but very athletic, so he wants to eat only healthy foods to become more muscular. Maybe you could go to the library and get a low carb cookbook and try some recipes.

[Desertthorn]

Re: Help! I am STUCK.

I recommend that you do what we call Maintenance Diet.
Eat 3 meals a day, and make sure none of it is junk food. 3 meals should have protein, fats and carbs, but the carbs need to be from fresh/frozen veggies, whole grains, fruit. Stay away from white, white flour, white sugar, white rice, white potatoes, or anything made from them. Fats should be good fats, butter, avocados, olive oil. One meal a week should be fish, tuna or salmon, sardine.
Drink lots of water, no coke - diet or otherwise, nothing with caffeine. Eat yogurt, plain and dress it up with your own fruit, cottage cheese, ricotta.
Exercise, walk, Wii, do anything other than sit in front of the computer.