Easy Ways For Kids To Lose Weight

Along with the health risks, carrying around a few extra pounds as a kid can be embarrassing and frustrating. Whether your excess weight is caused by poor eating habits, a lazy lifestyle or your genes, a few simple lifestyle changes can put you on track for a healthier weight. In fact, there are a variety of easy ways for kids to lose weight successfully.

Ideal Body Weight

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, recommends using the Body Mass Index, or BMI, to determine a child's ideal body weight. According to the CDC, the BMI "is a reliable indicator of body fatness for most children and teens." The CDC offers an online BMI Percentile Calculator for children; simply enter the child's date of birth, gender, height and weight to obtain the BMI. A BMI that falls between the 5th and 85th percentile is considered healthy. If your BMI is between the 85th and 95th percentile, you are overweight. If your BMI is above the 95th percentile, you are considered obese.

Get Active

An easy way to lose weight is to get involved in a sports team. The regular practices and games encourage you to be active most days of the week. If you do not feel comfortable playing team sports, there are several other ways to add more physical activity to your day. After school, take a walk or ride your bike around the neighborhood for 30 minutes. At home, help your parents with yard work or housework to burn a few extra calories. During the winter, try ice skating or spend a day climbing up snowy hills for sledding. To lose weight, stop spending a lot of time on the computer, playing video games or watching television.

Eat Healthy Foods

Unfortunately, many kids think that healthy foods are disgusting and boring. However, eating a healthy diet is an easy way for kids to lose weight. Eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Sneak more servings into your daily diet by incorporating healthy foods into your meals, such as adding fruit to oatmeal and vegetable slices to sandwiches. Eat whole-wheat bread instead of white bread, and eat only low-fat dairy products such as yogurt, milk and cheese.

Cut Out Extra Calories

Just eliminating one or two calorie-rich treats per day will encourage easy weight loss. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume per day. Trade in the soda or juice boxes for water; cutting one can of soda saves at least 150 calories. Instead of eating donuts for breakfast, eat a whole-grain waffle instead. Rather than eating a candy bar every day after school, eat just one candy bar as a special treat at the end of the week.

Cheat Every Once in a While

Diets that are extremely restrictive are difficult to follow and generally result in failure. Rather than eliminating all your favorite foods and lazy activities from your lifestyle, allow yourself an occasional indulgence. MSNBC Today Health recommends a "90/10 food strategy" where 90 percent of your foods are healthy and 10 percent can be a little unhealthy. With this strategy, you don't have to feel guilty about eating pizza at a friend's birthday party or having ice cream with your family.