Diet Plans For Teenage Girls To Lose Weight

Being overweight as a teenager can lead to adult health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, certain cancers and other chronic conditions. A healthful diet plan for teenage girls to lose weight can help reduce the risk of these diseases, boost self-confidence and promote healthy lifetime eating habits. As with any diet, if you have any questions or concerns, consult your doctor before starting.

Portion Control

Oversized portions mean excess calories. Being aware of proper portion sizes is vital for teenage girls trying to lose weight. Mary Gavin, M.D., writing for TeensHealth from Nemours, notes that popular foods such as bagels and muffins are often so big they constitute several healthy servings. She advocates reading food labels to learn about appropriate portion sizes, sharing restaurant portions, choosing snack-sized packets of sweets or chips and filling up on nutritious foods such as fruit, vegetables and whole grains.

Healthy Weight Management

University of Minnesota Professor Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, a specialist in teen eating issues, notes in her book "I'm, like, SO fat!: Helping Your Teen Make Healthy Choices" that feeling fat and "dieting" can lead to depression in teenage girls. Her alternative is a healthy weight management plan, which focuses on the health aspect of weight loss and simple dietary changes such as eating fruit and vegetables at every meal, choosing low-fat products, avoiding processed sugars, always eating breakfast and getting daily physical exercise.

Calcium and Iron Rich

It is vital that any diet for teenage girls still provide adequate nutrients. Two especially important ones for girls are calcium, which supports bone growth, and iron, which is essential for energy and a healthy immune system. In order to get adequate amounts of these nutrients on a calorie-controlled diet, teenage girls should ensure they eat plenty of low-fat dairy for calcium -- which also has fat-burning properties, according to 2005 study out of the University of Tennessee that was published in the "International Journal of Obesity" -- and iron-rich foods such as lean beef, turkey, spinach, soy products, legumes and fortified cereals.

Lifestyle Management

Calorie and portion control are important elements of a teenage girl's diet plan, but for optimum health, the emphasis should be on lifestyle management -- including family eating habits, exercise and attitudes towards food. According to registered dietician Anne Fletcher in her book "Weight Loss Confidential: How Teens Lose Weight and Keep It Off and What They Wish Their Parents Knew," a diet is most successful when the whole family makes healthy choices. This includes choosing balanced meals over junk foods, spending less time watching television and doing sports or exercising together. This promotes well-being and confidence and offers essential encouragement to teens trying to lose weight.