Q: Mike, what do you think of a VERY low carb diet? I mean no bread and potatoes for about a month. I am very obese, I am 15, 230 pounds, 5'11. My brother did it and he lost a lot of weight. Do you think I should do that tpo lose weight? I have been struggling to lose weight for about 3 years now...

A: No, I feel that very low carbing is rarely a good idea for anyone and certainly not a good idea in your case. First off, your body is still growing, so you should give it healthy nutrition and sufficient energy. For the same reason your weight loss should be very slow. What this calls for is not anything dramatic like cutting out all or almost all carbs, but instead switching to a healthy balanced diet and being physically active. Bread and potatoes should indeed be cut out, but other healthier carb choices should be substituted in their place.

Please read my Nutrition article to learn how to eat healthy and for weight loss. Read it a couple of times if you have to, but make sure you understand as much of it as possible. After that you have to use what you learned to make changes in your diet. You can get my suggested sample diet by filling out my Fitness Guide and then make changes to it that suit your schedule and taste. After you come up with your new diet plan, post it here and I'll tell you how it looks and what changes to make.

Besides a better diet you HAVE to be physically active. It's a great idea to start on weight training, just make sure you have adult supervision. Just don't lift very heavy weights till you're comfortable with the equipment, exercises, and are done growing (probably by age 17 or 18). Besides weight training, just try to be physically active in any and all other ways, whether it's pickup games with friends, school sports, shoveling snow, mowing lawns, running, swimming, biking, playing paintball, or anything else. Just be active!

Between those two things -- a healthy diet and being physically active -- I guarantee that you can change yourself from being obese to being in good shape in a year or so and in GREAT shape in 2-3 years.

So read that nutrition article, come up with a healthy balanced diet for yourself based on what you learn, post it here and we'll go from there. Good luck!