Stress from school, after-school activities, peer pressure and breaking family relationships take their toll on teenagers emotionally and physically. Stress counts among factors making almost 17.4 percent of U.S. teens overweight, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The prevalence of obesity among children in the United States more than tripled between 1980 and 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, if you're an overweight teen, healthy habits are a better way to weight-loss than dieting.
Fad Diets
If you're tired of being overweight, you might feel tempted to take a short route to weight loss through low-carbohydrate diets such as Atkins and South Beach or fad diets that focus on a narrow range of food choices such as the grapefruit diet and the cabbage soup diet. But such diets can prove harmful and ineffective in the long run, especially for teens, because they eliminate essential nutrients you need to stay healthy and grow muscle and bone. A better and healthier way to lose weight is by making healthier food choices and getting more exercise.
Meeting Nutritional Needs
Your growing body, overweight or not, requires proper nutrition. You can safely eliminate candy, chips and regular soft drinks from your diet, but you should eat a well-balanced diet that includes whole grains, fruits and vegetables, protein and dairy. Whole grains provide your body with essential carbohydrates as well as fiber that can aid digestion and relieve bloating. Fruits and vegetable also provide fiber as well as antioxidants, vitamins and potassium. Dairy provides calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. Protein provides nutrition to your growing muscles. You can -- and should -- include healthy amounts of all these foods in a weight loss plan.
Calories
As a teen, you likely need more calories than most adults. A moderate calorie-reducing diet for an adult woman might include 1,500 calories -- 500 less than her normal intake. But that same diet is 700 to 1,000 calories less than the recommended intake for a growing teenage girl, and if you're a boy, as many as 1,500 calories less. Rather than focusing on calories, aim to make healthier food choices -- a grilled chicken sandwich instead of cheeseburger, an apple instead of apple pie, whole grain bread instead of white and low-fat milk instead of a milkshake. Don't eliminate fat from your diet -- your growing body needs it -- but limit your intake of saturated fat, found in meat and other animal products, and trans-fat, found in margarine, shortening and some commercial baked goods. Healthy fats include those found in olive and vegetable oils as well as those in fish and nuts.
Considerations
Weight loss demands that you expend more energy than you take in. Become more physically active to strengthen your muscles and burn fat. Determine your healthy weight by using the Body Mass Index, available on many websites, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The amount of food you need depends on your gender, weight, height, age and the level of your activity. My Pyramid, an interactive tool available at the website of the United States Department of Agriculture, allows you to arrive at the type and amount of food you should eat to lose weight.
References
- ABC News: Today's teens 'the heart attack victims of tomorrow' ; (NO BYLINE); Feb. 9 2011
- Weight Control Information Nerwork: Take Charge of Your Health: A Guide for Teenagers
- United States Department of Agriculture: Interactive Tools
- Centers For Disease Control and Prevention: Childhood Obesity
- Diet Information: Calorie Needs for Teens
- United States Department of Agriculture:My Pyramid Daily Food Plan
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