Hey, I'm also 17 now. I lost about 35 pounds LCing and I remember all the negative remarks and "opinions" I would get from everybody around me. Theyd tell me how great I look then ask me how I did it. As soon as I told them how they'd immediately jump down my throught saying how unhealthy it was and how a friend told them all the problems they had being on the diet and blah blah blah. At first it was pretty annoying but after a while I just learned to ignore them. But dont even pay attention to your friends... my friends said the same thing to me while they sat there eating a bag of cookies at the same time.