[Kawichick]

I am a 20 year old female and I am 5'7'' 170lbs. Am I overweight? Any suggestions for losing weight? Help me

[Art_Critic]

Try this Calculator from the CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/calc-bmi.htm


According to this you are overweight but not obese

[glittergurl]

What works the best (in my opinion, but I ain't no doctor ) is eat small amounts of food through out the day, instead of 2 or 3 big meals. A lot of overweight people have stretched stomachs. Big meals will stretch it, and whenever that big stomach is getting empty, you feel hungry, and eat again and again. The point is to get your stomach to a healthy size, so that you'll only feel hungry when your body really needs it. It can be a pretty slow process though; but at least you won't be starving yourself

[Outcast]

You need to eat ONLY if you're hungry and stop eating as soon as you're not hungry - not when you're full. Eat slowly so the 'not hungry' signal will have time to kick in. Avoid fatty foods - fried stuff is the worst. And of course you need to exercise.

[Tony]

Environmental control is of supreme importance. Go through your house with a garbage bag and throw out all foods you shouldn't be eating...starting in your refrigerator, freezer and pantry. Don't buy things you can snack on that will add the pounds. Do have snacks around but things like veggies or other foods that won't be high in calories. If you have an addiction to sugar, it could take a week or two before you start really getting into your new way of eating.

Also, stop frequenting fancy restaurants. While the food may LOOK low in calories, I promise you there are very few full meals in any restaurant that are under a thousand calories. And by all means, no more fast food.

Do the things above and exercise moderately and you'll watch the pounds melt off. You need to burn off 3500 calories to lose one pound. If you use 2000 calories per day, which is the average, you can do the math for your particular situation.

[mini696]

Technically yes you are... But some women carry it better than others. sorry I cant be more helpful.

[kitkat826]

According to my BMI, I just barely make it in the Normal category. Four more pounds, and I'd be "overweight". But I'm rather solid/muscular for my height, and get compliments on my physique all the time. So it really depends on how you carry it. Scale numbers can be really decieving.

You should measure your body fat index, which will allow you to accurately calculate your lean tissue mass, your daily caloric requirements (so many calories/pound of lean tissue + BMR) and hence, your nutritional needs.

I just bought a caliper fromm a local healthcare store (only one store on an island of 140,000 had one). It's called the "Fat-O-Meter" and it's made by Novel Products.

It comes with a booklet with instructions on how to get measurements using a skinfold caliper. Using the data, find your caloric requirements, subtract 500-1000 calories (or 20-30%) then divvy up the calories into meals.

Eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day, spaced 2-3 hours apart. Eat your biggest meal in the morning, and your smallest meal at dinner/evening. Eat some Protein with every meal, and carbohydrates. Don't let Fat intake go above 30%. Eat healthy food. Plan your meals days or weeks in advance. Plan your day ahead and figure out when you can incorporate a meal (2-3 hours). Every 4th day, eat more than you calculated, even over your max calories. This will prevent the body's starvation response kicking in and slowing progress.

Exercise regularly. Cardio and weight training, alternate days. Try high intensity interval training (15 secs running max, 60 seconds jog, repeat). It burns more calories. Constantly measure your progress (remember the caliper? ) Make sure you are not losing too much lean tissue. 1-2 pounds of fat can be safely removed from the body per week. Any more than that is guaranteed to be muscle or water. If you hit a plateau, change your exercise routine, the type of exercise, anything that works. Alternately, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As for the motivation thing, I can't help you with that. That's up to you.