How to get fit for a busy teen?

You could try snowshoeing, that’s a heck of a workout in a hurry. Or a stationary bike while working on paperwork.

Jump rope, sit ups, crunches. Walking is also great and it’s free.

The first thing is to get rid of all excuses. Everyone is busy – I have a very hard time believing that you don’t have even 20 free minutes in any given day. Also, you don’t find time to exercise; you make time. I get up at 4:30am Monday-Friday so I can get my workout in. You either want it or you don’t – you decide.

On the other hand, you don’t need to exercise in order to lose weight. Weight loss is the result of consuming less calories than your body is burning. But don’t set yourself up for failure by eating too little or depending on some fad diet, detoxes, meal replacement shakes, quick fix programs, etc. A moderate calorie deficit is key to sustainable weight loss. If you’re just “slightly over” your ideal weight, you don’t need to be losing quickly. A half pound to one pound per week is plenty.

If you want to exercise for health/fitness purposes, that’s great. I’m a huge advocate for strength training (men and women), but cardio and bodyweight exercises are better than nothing. I suggest FitnessBlender.com for awesome free workout videos, most of which require no equipment. You can find HIIT, cardio kickboxing, Pilates/yoga, strength, etc…it’s all there free of charge. Please don’t waste your money on things like Insanity or P90X. They’re not miracle programs – you can get the same results without spending money unnecessarily.

In short, get your nutrition right in order to lose excess fat. Weight loss happens in the kitchen; fitness happens at the gym.

I agree with @livelaughlove21 . I’ve known guys to get in shape simply lifting weights a little bit every day and slowly building up the weights. Muscles burn more calories. My father in law stayed in shape all his life by simply doing pushup and situps every morning. He was able to do it till he was 83 then he suffered a hip injury and had to stop. Up till then he said he never missed a day.

Here’s one possibility.

The 7 Minute Workout

@livelaughlove21 I would make time, but I get up at 5am for school which is at 8am and I don’t get home until 4:30pm and I have a job from 5pm-9pm most days and it takes time to get ready and get there in a week and when I don’t I’m helping my paralyzed aunt out at her house and by the time I get home it’s 9pm then I have homework which usually takes until 10pm then I have to go to bed. I have school 6 days a week. On Sundays I get up early around 5am and go to church for youth group, then I have my actual church service which goes from 9–12 for both services and I go to both with my family. Then I do any homework still left which if when I do all of my projects which takes atleast until 3pm then I have football practice until 6pm then I have band practice until 9:30, I get home around 10pm and go to bed. It’s hard to find a good time for me to workout. I don’t need any judgement I need a workout and food idea that can help me achieve that in less time than 20 minutes a day.

@Bayjo98241 What I gave you was advice, which is what you asked for. Call it judgment if you want to, but I know I had trouble losing weight and keeping it off until I stopped making excuses for why I couldn’t eat better and exercise more. I’d convinced myself that my excuses were valid, but they weren’t.

I’m interested in why you get up at 5 to be at school by 8. Must be quite a drive. Like I said, I get up at 4:30, and ocassionally 4:00, to get in my workout. I go to sleep around 10 as well, so you could do that if you wanted it bad enough. Again, that’s a choice you have to make.

Sorry if I sound harsh or judgmental, but if I hadn’t stopped making those excuses, I’d be 35 lbs heavier than I am today, and not nearly as fit. I’m not overweight because I wanted to change bad enough to make the necessary adjustments to my life. Sometimes it takes a little sacrifice.

My advice to check out FitnessBlender still stands. They have plenty of videos under 20 minutes. Just know that you’re not going to burn a huge amount of calories in 20 minutes. At most, you might burn 200 calories if it’s really intense cardio the entire time. Otherwise, maybe 100–150 calories. Not enough to make a big difference as far as weight loss goes. As for food, it’s calories in vs. calories out. I’d you refuse to count calories, that’s your prerogative, but that’s the only way you’ll know how much you’re really eating. There are no certain foods that will magically make you lose weight. Eat what you want while sticking to a moderate calorie deficit and voila, weight loss.