Teenage girls looking to get healthy need to be cautious about how they go about doing so. Fad diets can be tempting, but they are often unhealthy and can lead to weight gain in the long run. Since a teenager's body is still in the process of growing, the focus should be on consuming the proper amount of calories, vitamins and nutrients in order to maintain healthy development heading into adulthood. Losing weight doesn't have to be difficult, and it can happen quicker than you think when the proper steps are followed.
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Teen girls are going through many changes and growing at a rapid pace, so it's vitally important that they get the proper nutrition in their diet. The United States Department of Agriculture offers a free report to people of all age groups, which spells out the healthiest foods to eat and how much of them you should be eating each day. To make things even easier for teenage girls to start eating healthier, the USDA created a free online tool called MyPyramid, which can be found at MyPyramid.gov. This diet tool allows you to enter a few personal details--age, gender, height, weight, physical activity level--and from those figures a personalized diet plan is created. This plan includes the exact number of calories that a teen girl should be eating each day, the types and amounts of foods that are healthiest for teens and even exercise advice. The USDA has made it quicker and easier than ever to get a free, custom diet plan.
Reducing Junk Food
A major culprit for teenage girls becoming overweight is junk food. Spend a few days actually writing down all of the soda, sugary snacks, chips and other unhealthy treats you are consuming each day--the results may surprise you. The calories in junk food contain little or no nutritional value, so they basically are stored as fat in the body instead of being used for energy, building muscle or strengthening bones. Simply by eliminating, or at least reducing, junk food from your diet, you can cut several hundred calories from your daily caloric intake. For example, eliminating your daily soda and candy bar can reduce your calorie intake by 300 to 500 calories, which is the equivalent of about one-half to 1 lb. of weight loss per week. Eating healthier alternatives can have a big impact on your weight-loss goals, and noticeable results will be apparent quicker than you think.
Smaller Portions
Ever since many of the fast-food restaurants began super sizing it, society has had a distorted picture of what a proper food portion actually is. The fact is that many people are simply eating too much at each meal. There's probably no faster or easier way to begin getting healthy than to eat the right portion size at each meal. Most teenage girls will need approximately 2,000 calories per day, according to the USDA, so divide up your daily meals loosely based on this figure. Use an online tool, such as CalorieKing.com, to determine how many calories are in the food you're eating. Write down the number of calories you are eating with each meal for approximately a week, so that you can get an understanding of what a healthy portion of food actually looks like. You'll find that in many cases, you were eating too much at each meal. Changing your eating habits will lead to fast results, and you'll feel and look healthier before you know it.
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