[Still glamorous]

Hi I need to lose about 10 pounds at the moment I am 12 years old and I am overweight I am about 65 pounds douse anyone know anything to help me please :(

[joypulv]

That is not overweight unless you are very, very short. How tall are you? Why the urgent need to lose 10 lbs? Did someone say something mean or teasing?

[dontknownuthin]

I don't know if you need to loose weight or not, though I understand you want to. I want to suggest what you can do to be a healthy and appropriate, slim weight. Here are some rules that have been proven over and over to work to make and keep people healthy and slim:

1. Cut out all pop, diet and regular. Eat real fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. Drink mostly water. Girls and women need low-fat dairy also - three servings a day of low-fat milk, yogurt, or other dairy like cheese. Make most of these servings low fat like skim milk and low-fat yogurt.

2. Eat about 5 times a day. Skiping meals backfires by lowering your metabolism (so you burn less calories than you used to), and setting you up to overeat at your next meal. So for a kid in school, this would look like breakfast before school, lunch at school, a snack after school, dinner, and a snack or small dessert after dinner. Keep portions reasonable and learn what one serving is of things by measuring your foods for a while until you get used to eyeballing what a portion looks like. For example, a portion of spaghetti is about the size of a tennis ball. One portion of meat is about the size of a deck of cards. One serving of salad dressing is one tablespoon. A serving of ice cream is a cup - like one scoop. A serving of cereal is one cup, not a full bowl.

3. Replace junky foods like chips, cookies, candy with healthy snacks like vegetables and fruits. Cut up carrots, apples, broccoli. A piece of string cheese, an apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter on it...

4. Have four or five servings of vegetables and two or three of fruit every day. A serving would be like one small or medium apple, a handful of baby carrots or grapes, half a cup of cooked vegetables, a cup of salad.

5. Move more. Obsessive exercise is bad for you in the long run and you won't be able to maintain it. Join a sport, dance group, a zumba class or just go out and play outside with your friends instead of staying indoors sitting around. When you get into middle school and high school, make it a point to join something active each season of the school year. Even if you don't know how to play, they will teach you and it will be a fun way to stay fit.

Don't try to "diet" and don't focus on "losing weight". If you focus on eating well and being healthy, you will just continue to grow into a slim but healthy person in the next few years. Dieting doesn't work - dieting is proven to make people fat and frustrated. Improving habits works over the long run for better lasting results.