Losing Fat - 13 Year Old

Training Bodybuilding
1

Hi everyone. I guess I’d call myself a ‘beginner’, and I have a few questions. but 1st let me give you guys background information.

Im 13 years OLD, been lifting for maybe a year, seriously 6 months. Im an athlete, football and baseball are my sports. Im on a modified in season “westside for skinny bastards” program. I eat a clean diet.

I just got off one of those shitty “bulking” stages when I basically drank 12 glasses of milk and had a Big Mac whenever possible. I made very good gains during that time, though my relative stregnth stayed the same or even went down.

My day to day diet looks something like this (keep in mind, Im trying to lose fat without losing too much muscle.

Breakfast- Oatmeal (the healthy kind), One banana, and a tall glass of OJ, 1 Multivitamin and fish oil

Mid morning- Apple, Chocolate Milk 1% fat

Lunch- Pb&J or Tuna on wheat, banana, chocolate milk.

Mid afternoon- Tuna or PB&J, 2 glasses of white milk, orange or carrots

Dinner- whatever my parents cook, normally pasta, meatloaf, or stew.

Before bed- 1 serving of raw brocolli

Is there anything I could do better? To help lose fat should I run sprints weekly?

2

[quote]norcal_BALLER wrote:
Hi everyone. I guess I’d call myself a ‘beginner’, and I have a few questions. but 1st let me give you guys background information.

Im 13 years OLD, been lifting for maybe a year, seriously 6 months. Im an athlete, football and baseball are my sports. Im on a modified in season “westside for skinny bastards” program. I eat a clean diet.

I just got off one of those shitty “bulking” stages when I basically drank 12 glasses of milk and had a Big Mac whenever possible. I made very good gains during that time, though my relative stregnth stayed the same or even went down.

My day to day diet looks something like this (keep in mind, Im trying to lose fat without losing too much muscle.

Breakfast- Oatmeal (the healthy kind), One banana, and a tall glass of OJ, 1 Multivitamin and fish oil

Mid morning- Apple, Chocolate Milk 1% fat

Lunch- Pb&J or Tuna on wheat, banana, chocolate milk.

Mid afternoon- Tuna or PB&J, 2 glasses of white milk, orange or carrots

Dinner- whatever my parents cook, normally pasta, meatloaf, or stew.

Before bed- 1 serving of raw brocolli

Is there anything I could do better? To help lose fat should I run sprints weekly?[/quote]

You are 13 years old. That means you are still growing. Your diet posted here would be perfect…if you were a six year old Somalian girl.

Your protein at breakfast is nonexistent aside from whatever your body can scavenge from milk. Bottom line, you need to stop eating like this. You also need to stop picking log in names like “baller”, but that is a discussion for another day.

You are not eating a clean diet…you are eating a diet devoid of any real calories because you have associated “clean” with eating like a Weight Watchers candidate who is obese. The last thing someone WHO IS GROWING needs to do is to eat that little all because your only thoughts are “abs”.

You need to change your approach. You need to continue to eat as if the goal was to GAIN muscle mass. You need to realize that oatmeal may be great in and of itself but it does not constitute a MEAL even if you do add a banana to it.

You are at an age where you don’t even need to eat with that much restriction to see positive progress and until you understand that fact, you will continue moving in the wrong direction. Do you understand…or do you think I just wrote that because I don’t understand you?

3

[quote]norcal_BALLER wrote:
Hi everyone. I guess I’d call myself a ‘beginner’, and I have a few questions. but 1st let me give you guys background information.

Im 13 years OLD, been lifting for maybe a year, seriously 6 months. Im an athlete, football and baseball are my sports. Im on a modified in season “westside for skinny bastards” program. I eat a clean diet.

I just got off one of those shitty “bulking” stages when I basically drank 12 glasses of milk and had a Big Mac whenever possible. I made very good gains during that time, though my relative stregnth stayed the same or even went down.

My day to day diet looks something like this (keep in mind, Im trying to lose fat without losing too much muscle.

Breakfast- Oatmeal (the healthy kind), One banana, and a tall glass of OJ, 1 Multivitamin and fish oil

Mid morning- Apple, Chocolate Milk 1% fat

Lunch- Pb&J or Tuna on wheat, banana, chocolate milk.

Mid afternoon- Tuna or PB&J, 2 glasses of white milk, orange or carrots

Dinner- whatever my parents cook, normally pasta, meatloaf, or stew.

Before bed- 1 serving of raw brocolli

Is there anything I could do better? To help lose fat should I run sprints weekly?[/quote]

First, good choice on following DeFranco’s program, it’s one of many solid choices. For your diet, if you just focus on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and getting a good MRP like Metabolic Drive, and something like Surge.

Don’t worry about restricting calories or carbs, just try to get in enough quality calories, and try for 30-50 grams of lean protein at each meal. Good luck man.

4

Ok bro excuse my even worse the normal typing in one armed here.

#1 your 13 unless your obese very over fat please dont go and drop your calories grow int your body you drop[p your intake a ton and your asking for trouble train eat healthy and a lot and reap the rewards your 13

[quote]norcal_BALLER wrote:
Hi everyone. I guess I’d call myself a ‘beginner’, and I have a few questions. but 1st let me give you guys background information.

Im 13 years OLD, been lifting for maybe a year, seriously 6 months. Im an athlete, football and baseball are my sports. Im on a modified in season “westside for skinny bastards” program. I eat a clean diet.

I just got off one of those shitty “bulking” stages when I basically drank 12 glasses of milk and had a Big Mac whenever possible. I made very good gains during that time, though my relative stregnth stayed the same or even went down.[/quote]

Height, weight, lifts etc??

you just got done packing on weight, your going to be growing please do your self a favor just slow down. dont cut but eat to perform your an athelete.

[quote]
Breakfast- Oatmeal (the healthy kind), One banana, and a tall glass of OJ, 1 Multivitamin and fish oil[/quote]
protein have none need a lot breakfast should be the biggest meal of he day

[quote]
Mid morning- Apple, Chocolate Milk 1% fat[/quote]
id make it regular milk, then heck you could have 2 with much less sugars

[quote]
Lunch- Pb&J or Tuna on wheat, banana, chocolate milk.[/quote]
if ya have the PB &J make it 2 milks need protein, fear not beef, meat etc.

[quote]
Mid afternoon- Tuna or PB&J, 2 glasses of white milk, orange or carrots[/quote]
looks good

eat up

add some food here protein. milk, meat, protein shake, hand full of peanuts

[quote]
Is there anything I could do better? To help lose fat should I run sprints weekly?[/quote]

lift hard, play your sports, play, be 13, go chase girls, play b ball, climb a tree, get in a fight lol, have some FUN!!

Phill

5

[quote]norcal_BALLER wrote:
Hi everyone. I guess I’d call myself a ‘beginner’, and I have a few questions. but 1st let me give you guys background information.

Im 13 years OLD, been lifting for maybe a year, seriously 6 months. Im an athlete, football and baseball are my sports. Im on a modified in season “westside for skinny bastards” program. I eat a clean diet.

I just got off one of those shitty “bulking” stages when I basically drank 12 glasses of milk and had a Big Mac whenever possible. I made very good gains during that time, though my relative stregnth stayed the same or even went down.

My day to day diet looks something like this (keep in mind, Im trying to lose fat without losing too much muscle.

Breakfast- Oatmeal (the healthy kind), One banana, and a tall glass of OJ, 1 Multivitamin and fish oil

Mid morning- Apple, Chocolate Milk 1% fat

Lunch- Pb&J or Tuna on wheat, banana, chocolate milk.

Mid afternoon- Tuna or PB&J, 2 glasses of white milk, orange or carrots

Dinner- whatever my parents cook, normally pasta, meatloaf, or stew.

Before bed- 1 serving of raw brocolli

Is there anything I could do better? To help lose fat should I run sprints weekly?[/quote]

why does every kid with a “baller” in there screenname want to look like an anorexic schoolgirl. Going by your avatar if that is you, you definitely don’t need to worry about cutting, you are going to stunt your growth, either physically or hormonaly if you know what i mean( late-puberty anyone?) Your body is growing and shit at this stage in life, don’t fuck it up by becoming anorexic.

6

Thanks. everyone seems to HATE me for my username, I’ll find out how to change it later.

So… you think my diet is “puny/not enough” AKA eat more? Well, I went on one of your proposed “EATING BIG” type of “diets” and it wasnt too succesful. I mean ya I did gain of all 3 major lifts but I got slow and (dare I say) fat. How is that going to transfer into athletics? after all acceleration (which is in my opinion the #1 skill to have) is your bodies ability to overcome inertia.

So if I gain 15 lbs. of not 100% functional muscle/fat by “eating BIG” then my acceleration goes down. And I have witness that in myself, Im not as explosive as I used to be.

As for your “growing kid” reply, think of this Id say that 75% of my school and most kids in America today skip breakfast. So am I really killing my self that much?

Ohh… and for your comment/prejudgment on all I probably care about is the visibility of my abs… thats somewhat offensive (but since it was a prejudgment I won’t take it offensivley). I could give a FUCK about my abs compared to my hamstrings, glutes, lower back, and quads.

I can understand where your coming from, after all this site is a powerlifting/meathead (non offensive) dominated site. Most people would be proud of me if I said I gained 15 lbs in 2 months. But after that then what? Sure Im Big on the field but what about that 135lb. kid who outruns me?

But thanks for your reply, I might change my approach to eating but I see how kids eat and its definatley WORSE then how I eat. Whats so wrong about substituting a Tuna Sandwhich for a Pizza, or apples for a bag of hot cheetos. You tell me I dont need to eat with that much restriction, who says so?

Ya maybe my metabolism is going at 100 mph but who says I cant eat healthy? And what WRONG direction am I moving in? Gains in all 3 lifts? a 2 times body weight squat? Relative strenght superiour to most? A low bodyfat percentage? what?

7

Hey Phil.

Maybe it wasnt that Im “dropping calories” more that Im taking them back to average after having a HUGE surplus of calories. Im never hungry like people have stated that it seems im an obeese lady on South Beach Diet. As for chasing girls and climbing a tree and getting into a fight, thats a daily thing for me.

Oh.

155lbs
Deadlift- 245lbs
Squat 235lbs
Bench- 150 lbs

8

oops, im 5’6.

And maybe the subject is miss leading, maybe its “maintaing weight while increasing lifts and increasing relative strength while becoming faster and more explosive”

9

[quote]norcal_BALLER wrote:

Ya maybe my metabolism is going at 100 mph but who says I cant eat healthy? And what WRONG direction am I moving in? Gains in all 3 lifts? a 2 times body weight squat? Relative strenght superiour to most? A low bodyfat percentage? what?[/quote]

Hey, kid, who the fuck said you had to eat “unhealthy”? Get back to me when you finally figure out that what you are doing is NOT “eating healthy”.

10

[quote]norcal_BALLER wrote:
So if I gain 15 lbs. of not 100% functional muscle/fat by “eating BIG” then my acceleration goes down. And I have witness that in myself, Im not as explosive as I used to be.[/quote]
OK - you want to be more explosive. Before you starve yourself try a lifting program aimed at developing explosive power for athletics - something including stuff like Olympic lifts, hill sprints, depth jumps… Read some of the Renegade training articles by coach John Davies on this site, for example.

And eat! Yeah, most kids your age eat some unhealthy crap, but at least they’re eating enough to grow.

11

You need to multiply your current protein intake by 50.

12

[quote]norcal_BALLER wrote:
Hey Phil.

Maybe it wasnt that Im “dropping calories” more that Im taking them back to average after having a HUGE surplus of calories. Im never hungry like people have stated that it seems im an obeese lady on South Beach Diet. As for chasing girls and climbing a tree and getting into a fight, thats a daily thing for me.

Oh.

155lbs
Deadlift- 245lbs
Squat 235lbs
Bench- 150 lbs

[/quote]

I’m not so sure that you had a HUGE surplus of calories. Perhaps an excess for where you are at right now. The simple answer is to not worry too much about the fat as long as you are active. Any time now you are going to hit a growth spurt and be so skinny you won’t believe it. The fat will melt off overnight. You will eat anything that isn’t nailed down.

BTW - not bad lifts at your age and size. Keep lifting the way you are going and you will be fine.

13

Children should not be dieting. That doesn’t mean you have to be force-feeding yourself and putting on a lot of fat. There is a middle ground. Eat for hunger, lift, and do your sports-specific training.

You’re not doing yourself a favor with your current diet or setting yourself up for best sports performance. You need to up your protein intake considerably and NOT restrict your calories. You don’t need to purposefully overeat yet.

14

[quote]jsbrook wrote:
Children should not be dieting. That doesn’t mean you have to be force-feeding yourself and putting on a lot of fat. There is a middle ground. Eat for hunger, lift, and do your sports-specific training.

You’re not doing yourself a favor with your current diet or setting yourself up for best sports performance. You need to up your protein intake considerably and NOT restrict your calories. You don’t need to purposefully overeat yet.[/quote]

This kid could either make some amazing progress over the next few years…or screw it all up and actually go backwards. Apparently, he is a fan of now dated “Michael Jackson moonwalk”.

15

In football (and most other team sports) you are much more likely to be one yard short than one pound short. In other words speed is more important than size, especially when you are young and don’t have to face humongous monsters.

However this is not a green light to go anorexic on us and lose too much weight (which might very well end up as lost muscle tissue too).

Right now you shouldn’t be worried about calories - neither up or down. What you should be concerned is getting enough “nutrients” to sustain optimal performance. Nutrients and calories aren’t the same.

Your body doesn’t need calories, it needs protein for tissue repair and building, it needs carbs for fuel and the stimulation of the recuperation/growth process and it needs fat for energy, nervous system health and hormone production. Restricting any nutrient will lead to a decrease in athletic performance.

Train and eat to perform like an athlete, size will follow but it shouldn’t be your primary objective.

If you train hard and intelligently (which you seem to be doing) and give your body enough nutrients, it will grow and the growth will not be “dead weight”.

As a rule of thumb:

  1. DON’T worry about calories, just make sure to get enough of each nutrient each day.

  2. Eat some protein (at least 20-30g) every 2-3 hours you are awake. This can be in the form of beef, chicken, fish, other meats, shrimps, cheese, protein powder, eggs, etc.

  3. Eat some fruits or veggies with every protein serving.

  4. Eat some higher glycemic carbs (rice, pasta, bread, potatoes) right after your training session along with a double dose (40-60g) of protein.

  5. Limit your intake of junk foods

Basically eat 6-8 meals per day, each containing enough protein and quality carbs. Once or twice per day (post-training and at breakfast) you can eat carbs like bread, pasta, potatoes, oatmeal, rice, etc.

If your energy is down increase your food intake by eating more of the recommended food above.

16

[quote]Professor X wrote:
jsbrook wrote:
Children should not be dieting. That doesn’t mean you have to be force-feeding yourself and putting on a lot of fat. There is a middle ground. Eat for hunger, lift, and do your sports-specific training.

You’re not doing yourself a favor with your current diet or setting yourself up for best sports performance. You need to up your protein intake considerably and NOT restrict your calories. You don’t need to purposefully overeat yet.

This kid could either make some amazing progress over the next few years…or screw it all up and actually go backwards. Apparently, he is a fan of now dated “Michael Jackson moonwalk”.[/quote]

Haha. Hopefully we gave him a wakeup call. I really hate hearing kids and teenagers talking about dieting, especially those involved in sports. I don’t hate those who have achieved their full growth who are 160 and chasing abs. Not my thing, but hey-to each his own.

But I would NEVER have thought of going on a real diet as a middle-school or high-school athlete. Really one of the worst things you can do for yourself.

17

Just make sure you eat complete protein every meal and stay on a caloric surplus in your diet.

A BIG caloric surplus, your body needs nutrients to grow in HEIGHT aswell as put on muscle.

Take it from me, I spent a better part of 2 years on a very low calorie diet and I stopped growing 4 inches short of what I should be, the last thing you want to do is stay 5’6" forever.

18

So after everyones posts, I think I’ll start eating more of the right things. I forgot to add post workout and pre workout meals to my diet plan. Anyway, does everyone really think my diet is that of a 16yo girl trying to lose 25 pounds in a week?

This is what I’ll do, since I have time to experiment before the season starts and a few pounds wount kill me.

Ill add 2 glasses of milk to my breakfast.

A protein bar instead of apples and 2 glasses of white milk to my mid morning snack.

An extra ham sandwhich to my lunch and another milk.

Pre Workout- Ill eat some sort of chicken or beef with pasta and fruit.

Post- Add an extra serving of Surge? to my already 1 scoop.

Dinner- Whatever my parents make

Before bed- Brocolli and 2 glasses of milk.

Thanks everyone, this was a real eye opener.

P.S my avatar, i do look like a skinny ass bastard, that was 25 lbs and 4 months ago.

19

I just wanted to point out that CT’s intelligent post here is exactly why we need to keep these forums alive. His post is a great example of giving thoughtful advice that could save this kid years of not making progress.

20

[quote]superdad4 wrote:
I just wanted to point out that CT’s intelligent post here is exactly why we need to keep these forums alive. His post is a great example of giving thoughtful advice that could save this kid years of not making progress.[/quote]

Yup!