Restrictive diets for teens who are supervised by a medical professional can help with initial weight loss. However, the best approach to helping your teen attain and maintain a healthy body weight is to guide her into healthy eating habits. Overweight teens need to engage in physical activity, eat reasonable portions and eat a balanced diet that emphasizes nutrition and minimizes calories and fats. Promote healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.
High-Protein, Low-Carb Diet
Research described at Reuters suggests that teens can lose weight effectively when supervised on a high-protein, low-carb diet. Pediatric researcher, Dr. Nancy F. Krebs, from the University of Colorado Denver School Of Medicine, reports that on average, obese teens on a medically supervised, low-carb, high-protein diet lost over 29 lbs. over a 13-week period. The diet had no harmful effects on bone mineral density, growth or other metabolic functions such as cholesterol. In fact, the teens had increases in their good HDL cholesterol, and reductions in the level of harmful LDL cholesterol.
Low-Fat Diet
The contrast group in Dr Kreb's study participated in a low-fat diet. This group lost an average of 16 lbs. over the 13-week study. Though they lost less weight than the high-protein, low-carb teens, these obese teens still lost significant weight. They had no adverse medical effects from the diet, and like the other teens, they had improvement in LDL and HDL cholesterol.
Healthy Maintenance Diet
Medically supervised diets may aid with initial weight-loss, but the task of maintaining weight loss falls on the individual. You can help your child by eliminating fatty, high caloric foods from the pantry and fridge. Substitute skim milk for whole-milk. Replace simple carbs with whole wheat bread, whole grain pasta and brown rice. Prepare healthy snacks for your teens, such as fruit salads, sliced apples with yogurt as dip and celery with peanut butter.
Serve lean meats, such as skinless turkey and chicken. Have salads at meals, and incorporate vegetables into meal plans. Serve veggie-heavy casseroles, stews, soups and stir-fries. Find or create "healthified" versions of your favorite recipes by adding vegetables and replacing high-fat and high-calorie ingredients. For example, use low-fat cheese, turkey sausage and whole-wheat pasta in your lasagna. Check out the website EatBetterAmerica.com for some healthified recipes.
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