is this a healthy diet plan? need some suggestions?

Question

i am a 140 Ib 16 year old. i would like to aim to loose 3-4 pounds a week. i'm willing to commit to eating no more than 1300 calories a day, and walking at least 5 miles a day (with some jogging here and there) ; OR doing soccer for an hour plus a 30 min switchoff between crunches, weight lifting, pushups and stretching - along with my 30min Phys Ed class daily. (i am also a vegetarian.) the only problem is my reases puffs cereal and granola bars which i plan to cut completely. i also drink tea every morning - sometimes twice a day. they say its fat burning.

so my questions are these:

1) with this diet plan could i loose at least 3-4 pounds of fat a week?

2) how much water should i drink daily?

3) how can i get rid of my food cravings? (minty gum & brushing teeth isnt working out so well...and spicy things make me sick. can you think of anything else that may work?)

4) its kinda hard to eat small "meals" every 3 hrs like i should cause i'm at school...any suggestions?

the exercising amount isnt that bad for me. i'm pretty athletic. for the last year though all i've been doing is maintaining my weight. i wanna loose it now.

Answer 1

find calorie/fitness calculator on the net, enter all your stats and it will tell you how many calories you need a day to maintain, take off 300-400cal off that number and thats how much you need to lose.
eat 5-6 small meals a day (eat every 2-3 hours)
5-8 servings of fruit and veggies a day
8 glasses of water
have complex carbs for breakfast - they give you energy
have lean meat (protein) for dinner - repairs muscle
cardio exercise 4-6 times a week for 30-50min, light weight training
dont consume foods that are made of white flour (white bread, cakes, past etc.), sugar loaded foods (cookies, icecream, candy etc) and nothing fried, oily.
ofcourse you can spoil yourself once in a while with a little treat:)

Answer 2

It's really only safe to lose 1-2 pounds a week. The crazy part about dieting is that if you cut back drastically on food, your body kicks into survival mode since it thinks that you're starving, meaning that you begin to store fat instead of losing it. Also, if you exercise a lot, your body needs energy, meaning you need food.

That said, your plan might work, however, with such a drastic diet you might gain the weight back again. It's been said that if you don't lose weight so drastically, you have a better chance of keeping it off in the long run.

As for how much water, I say drink enough so that you don't become dehydrated (thirst is actually the first warning sign of the body becoming dehydrated).

Food cravings--the worst enemy--I'm a big fan of everything in moderation, and I have a hard time sticking to self imposed dietry restrictions, what I've found to work is don't cut out the foods you truly love, just cut back on the portions, or just save having like your favorite food on a certain day of the week, like Friday, as a celebration of sticking to your diet for a week.

Also when you get hit with food cravings, it might be a good idea to try to eat something healthy, like an apple or something, because your body is telling you that you need food. Or maybe drink a glass of juice.

As for eating every three hours, I don't know--do your teachers let students eat in class? If they do, I would try to eat some fruit or something during the day.

Answer 3

This is not enough to give your body the energy it needs to survive throughout the day much less the workouts. It looks like a crash diet to me and your body is actually go into starvation mode and your weight loss is not going to be maintainable and your body is going to take a beating. Here are my suggestions - To go along with your toast in the morning have an egg instead of the jelly with maybe a little bit of cheese. That will give you much needed protein. Very important - morning snack, about 2 - 3 hrs after breakfast - maybe a peice of fruit like banana or a cup of strawberries. This will give your metabolism a little kick start which will actually make you loose more calories in the long run. Lunch - if you really want something small why don't you try a salad with a little bit of chicken or fish??? You will need a little protein to keep your energy going and your metabolism working. Have an afternoon snack of brocolli or some celery or at least one cup or so of veggies! Dinner - have one portion of protein (chicken, fish, meat etc) and 2-3 portions or so of veggies. A portion of meat should be as big as your palm or closed fist, no bigger. I really hope you do not follow the diet plan that you are on as its unmaintainable and you will put your body through hell doing that. Thats not nearly enough calories to keep you going! Good luck!

Answer 4

You don't need to do soooo much excises - this is just crazy. You will burn yourself out before you start losing weight. Slowly is best. I you lose to much to fast you will put everything back on + more the moment you stop.