Weight loss

[yoginam]

Hi, I’m a 17 year old girl and I have tried all of the fad diets under the sun because I’ve always been a bit obsessed with being thin as this is my natural body shape and I would like it to stay that way... however of course as I have grown up, it has become harder to maintain this body shape (makes sense). I have tried veganism, vegetarianism, low sugar, low carb, gluten free, dairy free, low calorie and about every other diet you could think of. I have also exercised vigorously in the past, these days I do ashtanga yoga (intense yoga workout) three times a week and run a few miles once a week. I eat (on average) between 1000-1300 calories a day with 1200 being most normal for me. I am not losing any weight though? I seem to have plateaued completely and I don’t know what to do. Please can someone help? 

[Dominique]

Your situation sounds very similar to that described by @Baebay1231 in this other post. She’s also a teenager, also already very thin, yet looking to get even thinner.

Without knowing your height, your weight and your average activity level (e.g. in terms of step count), it’s quite hard to provide advice or help.

[yoginam]

Oh cool! I’ll look at her post. I’m 5”6 and I weigh 8st 10, I do ashtanga twice a week, walk 3 miles to school everyday and run once a week a couple of miles (I’m not good yet). It would be great if you could provide me with some advice:)

[Dominique]

OK, thanks for the additional info. I entered your data in this online calculator. At your current weight, your BMI is 19.7, i.e. quite close to the lower limit of the normal weight range. This means you don’t have to lose for health reason, and if you are really intent on losing, there isn’t much room before you’d be considered underweight.

Your BMR alone is 1355 calories, and with the activity level that corresponds to the description of what you do, your TDEE is likely 2000+. Assuming you have a Fitbit tracker, does that match calories burned reported by your Fitbit? You should definitely be able to eat more than 1000-1300 calories.

I’d make the same recommendation as in the other topic: focus on living an active lifestyle and eating a healthy diet. You should do fine with "intuitive eating", as opposed to logging your intake / counting calories. Just step on the scale on a regular basis to make sure your weight remains within +/- 5 lbs from the current level.

[yoginam]

Thank you so much. This is extremely helpful I can’t even tell you!! I always got a bit confused about the techy side of calories in relation to my BMI etc so this has really helped. The information you’ve given me corresponds to my Fitbit tracker, I guess I should have a go at just living a healthy active lifestyle rather than obsessively tracking calories  ... bit scary, but I want to try. Thanks again. 

[Dominique]

First of all, sorry for all the acronyms I included (BMI, BMR, TDEE). If you are not familiar with all of them, they are defined at the bottom of the calculator page I referenced in my previous post.

It’s a good thing you are interested in nutrition so early in your life, and have realized how it can affect your body and your health. It’s also good you’ve already seen fad diets for what they are, fads. Once you know some basic principles about nutrition, what matters most and what matters least, you can design your own diet by applying these basic principles. You may want to have a look at this older topic for pointers.