Healthychildren.org reports that obesity affects more than 9 million children and teenagers in the United States. Physical activity, a balanced diet and practicing a healthy lifestyle help teenagers lose and maintain weight to avoid or combat weight-related conditions like obesity. A sedentary lifestyle and poor dietary practices are the primary cause of excess weight in teenagers. Too much computer time or video game and fast food eating encourages unhealthy habits.
Low-Intensity Activity
Maximize the amount of low-level activity that you perform every day. Low-level activity includes a brisk walk or bike ride. This type of activity relies exclusively on burning stored fat for energy. Teenagers can burn more fat by walking to school and parking or getting dropped off further from campus. Only sit down when you have to while you are at school and keep moving the rest of the time. Engage in movement-oriented leisure activities like a trip to the mall instead of sedentary activities like going to the movies.
Daily Exercise
Teenagers need at least 60 minutes of exercise or physical activity. Participate in team or individual athletics in school or community programs. Make sure your class schedule includes a fitness component such as weight lifting or physical endurance activities. Household chores like scrubbing, dusting or washing windows also provide a good dose of physical exercise you can get every day.
High-Repetition Circuit
Teenagers can lose weight by practicing a high-repetition weight-training circuit. Include a compound upper-body pushing exercise, upper-body pulling exercise and lower-body pushing exercise in each circuit. Complete four to five circuits per workout three to four times a week. Perform 20 to 25 repetitions of each exercise back-to-back without resting to complete each circuit. High-repetition circuits mobilize fat for energy and boost your metabolism, which increases the amount of fat that you burn during daily low-intensity physical activity.
Avoid Stress
Avoid stress, frustration and boredom to reach your weight-loss goal. Schoolwork, parents, romantic relationships and problems with friends may contribute to teenage stress. Control the amount of extracurricular activities that you are involved in. Get at least eight hours of sleep every night. Practice relaxation techniques like deep breaking, yoga and meditation. Control negative thoughts and reinforce optimism in your daily thinking patterns.
Eat Breakfast
A healthy and nutritious breakfast can help teenagers lose weight. Breakfast helps get your metabolism moving and supplies energy for physical activity, so you start burning fat early in the day. A nutritious breakfast may include a serving of fruit, vegetables, whole grains and lean meat. A hearty and nutritious breakfast also helps prevent hunger later in the day.
Limit Fats and Sugar
Eliminate or limit the amount of fatty and sweet foods that you eat. Foods that contain high concentrations of saturated fat such as fries and potato chips have disproportionate amounts of nutrients. These foods encourage over-consumption, because they contain too many ingredients that your body stores as fat and do not contain enough nutrients to supply you with energy throughout the day.
Gradual and Steady
Avoid trying to lose weight too quickly with fad and extreme dieting. Balance the amount of calories that you eat with the amount of energy that you expend each day. A pound of fat contains approximately 3,500 calories, so you can lose 1 lb. a week by reducing your daily caloric intake by 500 calories. Gradual weight loss supports sustainable lifelong weight control for teenagers.
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