How to Lose Weight During the School Year (Girls)

Making a Successful, Effective Plan

Figure out your starting weight to determine your goals. Start off by weighing yourself so you can track your progress. How many pounds do you want to lose? Keep in mind that an average person in middle, high school loses 2 pounds per week maximum. Once you've figured out your target weight and how many pounds you'd like to lose, figure out how long you have to lose the pounds, and start thinking about specific goals. Your goals need to be (1) specific; (2) attainable (doable); and (3) forgiving (less than perfect). In other words, "lose weight" is not a good goal because it's not specific. "lose 30 lbs in 10 days" is not a good goal because it's not attainable. "Exercise for 3 hours every day" is not a good goal because it's not forgiving. You want your goals to be something like, "Exercise 5 days a week, with the goal of losing 2 lbs a week." That leaves a little wiggle room to keep you on track.

Choose the right diet for you. The fact of the matter is that going low-calorie is not effective for everyone. That and it's hard. Do it for a week and you may end up breaking down, binging on everything in sight. Would low-carb be easier? How about just cutting out desserts? Picking up a vegetarian diet? Science is starting to suggest that eating right and exercise isn't everything. It's also about how your body is made up. Put two people on the same diet and they're going to have different results. So don't stress about trying to fit someone else's box of what a diet really is – concentrate on what you think will work for you.

Set up a plan. Once you figure out what you need to lose, the second step is to figure out how to lose it. Will you be focused on your diet? What kind of diet? And what about exercise? Create a basic plan detailing your exercise schedule and your diet regimen. An example of an exercise schedule could be "Monday: 30 min. cardio, 10 min. stretching/yoga, 20 min. strength/toning exercises; Tuesday: 20 min. light cardio and walking; Wednesday: rest; Thursday: 20 min. light cardio and walking, 20 min. strength training; Friday: 20 min stretching/yoga, 30 min. cardio. And don't forget that activities like swimming and dancing count, too.

Get a buddy. Everything is easier with a friend. Not only do they keep your spirits up, but they hold you accountable. When your friend is sitting there, eating a salad and some fruit and about to go for a walk, you'll be less likely to chow down on half a pizza and then take a nap. What's more, you'll have someone to bond with over the woes of weight loss. Practically everyone is "dieting" in some form or another nowadays. Just ask your friends who'd like to lose a few pounds with you and watch their arms shoot up. You are not alone in your battle, that's for sure.

Get a way to keep track of your progress. Technology is great for tracking your weight loss; you can use an app on your phone or another mobile device like "MyNetDiary" to keep you going. When you see how far you've come, you'll be motivated to keep going. Try to weigh yourself once or twice a week, but not obsessively. You will aggravate yourself too much and risk giving up in frustration.

Changing What and How You Eat

Drink water. Water, water, water: it should be your personal motto. Always drink at least 6-7 glasses of water a day. This will flush out your body and keep your skin crystal clear. What's more, it can curb hunger, too, keeping your stomach full. Always stay hydrated (and less hungry!) with water and take 5-10 minute breaks in between each routine to keep from exhausting yourself early and to prevent possible vomiting if you push yourself too hard. Stay away from sugary drinks that just spike your insulin and are full of empty calories. This includes juices and fancy coffee drinks – not just sodas. And while diet soda is technically better for you, you may see that you lose more weight when that diet soda gets replaced with water.

Pack your own lunch. Schools are all about providing large groups of people with, cheap, decent food. They're not about helping you lose weight. To avoid someone else determining your diet for you, pack your own lunch. Here's what it should include: Plenty of vegetables Few carbs and a slice of whole wheat bread or two should be it A fruit, like strawberries or grapes A protein source, like chicken, eggs, fish, peanut butter, or tofu

Cut out processed foods. In order to see consistent weight loss that keeps you motivated and feeling successful, you'll need to ditch the junk food. Anything that comes in a bag shouldn't be part of your dieting plan. Raw and fresh is the way to go to lose weight – processed foods have had their nutrients zapped out of them and are just full of sugars and salts that your body doesn't need. In fact, most processed goods have something in them that technically your body doesn't even recognize. It's all foreign junk that isn't good for you. To replace that urge to munch on chips or cookies, instead go for a handful of nuts or berries you can munch on. Sometimes it's just the urge to chew that needs to sated, not eating itself.

Eat breakfast. If you think that skipping meals will make you fit in those skinny jeans, think again. Your body will go into starvation mode and will start eating away nutrients in your fat. Then when you eat again, you will gain more weight because your body latches onto what you did give it and refuses to let go. This will just leave you with more fat than before. Breakfast in the morning keeps your metabolism going throughout the day, and gives you energy for school, work, and better food and exercise choices. Hard to believe? This is part of the reason why yo-yo dieting doesn't work. Once you've starved your body, it learns to adapt. Then when you feed it again, it can essentially stay in starvation mode, fearing the worst will happen again. By cutting back too far, you're just sabotaging your future self.

Master the art of portion control. In order to make sure you're not eating like you're living in an all-you-can-eat buffet, be sure to monitor how much of what you eat, too. Here are a few tips to make eating less easier: Try to use smaller plates to make your food look bigger. Science says blue plates are better for less hunger, too. Eat slowly and savor your food. For every bite, try to chew for 5 seconds, then swallow, wait 3 seconds and drink a sip of water. Confusing? It's not. It's the 5-3-D. Try to eat protein at every meal. Chicken, steak, and beef should be about the size of a deck of cards. Eating more protein keeps you fuller for longer, resisting that urge to snack on something you shouldn't be snacking on.

Have something to make you feel good once in a while. For those days when your diet is getting to you, munch on something to make you feel better. Some dark chocolate, a sugary fruit, a few pretzels, or even a glass of red wine. Putting everything you love off-limits is a recipe for disaster. You have to have something to keep you going. Many people believe in calorie cycling. That's the idea where some days you eat a lot and some days you eat a little to keep your body guessing. Others choose one day a week where they eat whatever they want and the other six days they follow a stringent plan and ultimately this keeps them on track longer. So it's not all "cheating." Some of it is actually a good idea.

Eat more, smaller meals. 5 meals, instead of 3? It almost sounds too good to be true. But research says that eating often stabilizes your metabolism and keeps you from bingeing later on. That's right. So have breakfast, a morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner. All small, of course. It's about eating more often, not about eating more in general. If you do want to implement the "eat more often" idea of dieting, make sure your meals are actually getting smaller, otherwise you'll just feel like you're dieting when you're really not.

Changing Your Routine

Make time in your schedule for exercise and eating right. Whether it's your school, work, or social schedule that is taking up all your time, you need to always make time to exercise. And if you say you don't "have time," you're likely not making cutbacks where you can. It's a matter of making exercise a priority above the other things you have to do. Even if it's just 15 minutes, it counts. Not only should you be making time to exercise, but you should be making time to eat right, too. What's this mean? It means setting time aside to go grocery shopping, to pack your own lunches, and to cook at home. Restaurants are some of the biggest culprits when it comes to foiling a strong diet plan. And besides, cooking is easier on your budget, too.

Pick up an active extra-curricular activity. When you're in school, it's hard to realize that there will be no other time in your life when being active is as easy. When you're a full-fledged adult in the workforce, no one is putting up flyers and posting tryouts for a practically infinite number of activities. So take advantage of it! Sign up for something, even if you're not great at it, it will be an awesome (mandatory) workout (that you can't really get out of). Alright, so not everyone can handle a school sport. A decent alternative? Marching band. You laugh now, but it's not easy holding up an instrument and walking around in the summer sun for hours at a time. And as for your lung capacity? Won't be a problem. So if you're more musically inclined, this could be the route to go.

Don't opt out of gym. In high school and college, physical education is largely becoming optional. Don't cave to the temptation! When else are you going to be able to take time out of the middle of your day just to mess around with peers and throw around a few balls? Likely never. And you're getting credit for it? That's a win-win. Did we mention it's easier on your brain, too? You can only handle so many legit courses at a time, so consider gym class your break. Between school, a job, and your extracurriculars, you've earned it.

Go to sleep! Try to go to bed on a routine every day, even on weekends, to keep your body energized and ready to make good choices all day. Sleep restores our hormones to normal, stabilizing our hunger. What's more, it keeps your skin glowing and healthy. As often as possible, aim for at least 8 hours a night. Oh, and while you're sleeping, you're still burning calories. You're also not eating, so where can you go wrong?

Limit the amount of TV you watch. Why? Well, for starters it gets you sitting on your butt and not doing anything. But what's worse is that watching TV makes us want to mindlessly eat even when we're not hungry. If you don't watch TV, the urge to eat may not even present itself. Eating while you're distracted is one of the biggest reasons teens are overweight. If you are hungry and your favorite program is on, get a snack and portion-control it. Put however much of the snack you should eat in one bowl, and eat that. No going back for refills. When your show is over, get up and go for a walk or do something active to get your mind off your hunger.