Can I get in shape quickly and safely at the age of 14?
Any tips?
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Actors have nutritionists, personal trainers and, erm, medical assistance.
Just eat healthy unprocessed foods, exercise CONSISTENTLY, drink a lot of water and you’ll be great.
It’s just a matter of time. Actors have 24/7 to eat right, work out. They have trainers often times who motivate them to follow an intense and accelerated workout schedules designed to bulk muscle.
Actors are able to make getting in shape their full-time job, hiring someone to make food for them and someone to be a personal trainer.
For someone your age, you should instead look at ways to make healthier food choices that you can continue with the rest of your life. You didn’t get out of shape overnight, you can’t fix that overnight either.
Drink more water instead of energy drinks or sodas or coffee drinks or milk teas. Try to eat more vegetables and fruits. Have smaller portions when you eat meals. Slow down your eating and stop halfway through then ask if you really are hungry enough to eat the rest, or are just eating because the food is there.
Sure, you just need a super expensive trainer who lives with you 24 hours a day, and a personal chef to feed you a customized diet. Workout four hours a day with that trainer and never eat anything you’re not supposed to for about six weeks.
One thing no one has said yet: at 14 you are in a great position in life to get into shape quickly. You are going thru puberty so your body is already primed for large changes over a comparatively short time.
Start exercising a lot. As much as you can figure out how to squeeze into a day. Lift weights. If you don’t have weights use your body by doing push-ups, pull-ups, squat thrusts, etc. Get creative. Around your age I went from being able to do no pull-ups to being able to do 30 with ease in just a couple of months. I did this by putting a pull-up bar across my bedroom door and every time I passed it I did as many as I could. It didn’t matter how many times a day I passed it, if I crossed the door I did as many as I could. Not much older I went from not being able to run a mile to doing a 6.5 min mile and being able to run 3 miles in one grading quarter in school. A gym class had me running 4 days a week for the entire 45 min class. No rules beyond you had to head down the trail and back. As soon as you were done you could leave class. Naturally we all pushed ourselves to do it as fast as we could so we could goof off the rest of the class time.
You will be surprised at how fast your body at your age will adapt to your exercise. If you combine the exercise with a good balanced diet (so no fad crap like Keto or gluten free) you will get into shape very quickly.
(Also if you want assistance training to run check out the C25K app for smart phones. It will train you in 8 weeks to be able to run a 5k. It works really well and has a free version)
You’ve gotten good info in other answers. The thing I’d add is that most actors have been in very good shape since they were teenagers. They may add some muscle and/or cut some fat depending on the role, but a massive transformation is not generally needed.
Also, you’re getting a lot of discussion of caloric restriction, but that’s not the issue for the typical 14 year old. People have different bodies, but at 14 you likely need to eat a lot of calories (including a lot of protein) while lifting heavy weights if you want to look like an actor.
Short answer: Actors are paid a lot of money to see entire teams of professionals to help them get into the shape the movie needs them to be in. Nutritionists, personal trainers, dieticians, you name it.
Long answer: You’re in the wrong subreddit. If what you actually want is advice for yourself, then I hope I’ve explained already why asking about actors doesn’t help you. For you, I have a very important piece of advice:
TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR.
Just about anything beyond the basics warrants a discussion with your doctor, who can give you much more personalized and, most importantly, *professional* advice. This is true for adults too, but it’s especially true for someone young like yourself. Because you’re still growing, messing up your body now can really hurt you long term.
If for whatever reason you can’t talk to a doctor, it’s not like theres nothing you can do. Making small, basic changes like drinking more water, trying to eat healthier foods – there’s no problem with that. Some basic exercise like biking, running, no issue there either. And if you have someone to make sure you have good form, you can even do basic weight training. (More than likely, a gym teacher or sports coach is the person you’ll want to go to for that.)
Final side note: at your age, you shouldn’t even *consider* going on any sort of diet without talking to your doctor first. I think more adults could stand to follow this advice too, but it’s especially important at your age.
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