Posted: 03/16/07 - 10:07 Post subject: very unable to lose weight
I am 17 years old and I am very active. I play volleyball, basketball, and soccer all year round for my school. (i.e. volleyball - fall, basketball - winter, soccer - spring) I watch everything that I eat and drink at least 64 oz.'s of water a day. I don't drink soft drinks and I eat fruits and vegetables every day. I try to limit my caloric intake to about 1200 calories a day. I can't seem to lose any weight. In fact, I seem to be gradually gaining weight. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Surely all this weight can't be from gaining muscle. Please help. Is it possible that I have a thyroid problem? What should I do?
Wow that sounds really frustrating but don't worry because I'm sure you will find out what is going on soon. It's hard to say what is wrong because you've given little information. Like what is your height and weight? When you say you try to limit your calories to 1200 a day what does that actually mean for you?? Like do you actually use an online calorie counter or are you guessing at the caloric intake? Or are you kind of payinmg attention to the labels then approximating you had one serving when you may have actually had 2 and underestimated how much you ate?
I really can't say why you are steadily gaining weight because it could be very normal since you are only 17 years old and still growing. Did you know your skeleton keeps growing until you are 25 years old!
The best way to know what is happening with your weight is to make an appointment with your doctor, they will run a simple blood test on your T4, T3 and TSH and that will tell them if your thyroid is functioning properly or not. But if you don't feel tired all the time and are not experiencing weird hair loss and other symptoms related to thyroid function then it's unlikely that the weight gain is due to thyroid problems.
If you find that your throid is normal then the weight gain could be due to normal growth or maybe you aren't watching the calories as closely as you think you are. I have made that mistake in the past where I really thought I was watching it but didn't realize that despite eating very healthy all day that spoonful of calorie ladden peanut butter or that small handful of nuts adds up to a whole lot of extra calories in a week....ooops.
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