Please Help - I Need a Healthy Diet and Nutrition Plan

[Fred57]

Hi, I am sixteen years old, 6' tall, and I weigh 180 lbs. I try to stay active but I usually only have an hour or two of exercise each day, from my workouts. I have been very enthusiastic about exercise and nutrition for the past three years, after I lost 60 lbs and decided that I would never be fat again.

I am having a problem finding a good diet. I want to lose weight (I am still a good 20 lbs overweight) as fast as I can (while doing it healthily without dangerous drugs or supplements) while I continue to build muscle.

Lately, I have found myself with less energy. If any of you could provide me with some kind of generalized meal plan diets, I'd really appreciate it. I need to have something that I can follow strictly.

By the way, I don't want to do anything unhealthy - I've heard that too few carbs result in lack of energy and too much protein is bad for your health - I'd like to find the healthiest and most effective diet.

Thank you for any help you can provide me (links to resources, plans, general strategies, etc). I appreciate it.

[Shao-LiN]

You could probably start cutting on a 2100 calorie diet. Just do a 40 carb/40 protein/20 fat kind of split if you don't want to go low carb.

Base your diet around foods that you like, but make sure you eat clean.

If you want to add in supplements, an ECA stack would help as well.

[Flyersfan]

Shao-Lin answered your question, but I have a comment - 180 lbs. is certainly within the "healthy" range for your height. Obviously I have no idea what you look like, but you're probably at the point where your body fat is a better barometer than just the scale.

A huge kudos on losing 60 pounds! Now it's time to start building muscle. If you are lifting every day, you're probably over training. Do some reading over in the Training forum as well as in here... you'll be on your way in no time!

[nightop]

You shouldn't worry about "losing weight" you probably mean you want to "lose fat"... It is wonderful that you are wanting to learn and get into proper dieting for health and growth... here is some good links to get you going.

www.thinkmuscle.com (articles)
http://www.wannabebig.com/archive.php?catid=2
http://www.hussman.org/fitness/
http://weightrainer.virtualave.net/

all of those have LOADS of good information... its gonna take some time to read, but getting a good understanding of all of this is where you should start. hope this helps...

oh, one more thing... lots of ppl and sites will have somewhat different opinions on diet, etc... just get a broad base of information and choose what's best for you. Just because someone wrote an article about something, doesn't make it automatically true.

[Shao-LiN]

Yah, I'd have to agree. I wouldn't focus on losing weight per se, but more on lowering your body fat %. All about what is comfortable for you.

[Jilla82]

whats the difference between lowering bodyfat % and losing weight?

[the doc]

well, losing weight could be anything.
loss of water, digested food, fat, precious muscle, even bone

Dropping BF% means one of two things, increase in lean body mass (tissues like muscle) or decrease in the amount of stored fat

thus in principle you can achieve a great looking physique without dropping a pound