When you are a teenager, being overweight can harm your health, as well as your self-image. But you can make lifestyle changes to drop those unwanted pounds, become fit and get well on your way to being a healthier you. Discuss losing weight with your doctor before beginning, and focus primarily on making healthy, permanent alterations to your eating and exercise habits.
Avoid Gimmicks and Quick Fixes
Fad diets and gimmicky weight-loss pills abound. Even if these cause you to lose weight initially, they are not likely to help you keep the pounds off long-term. Fad diets often eliminate entire food groups, which can deprive you of the nutrients your 14-year-old body needs to continue growing and developing. The efficacy of diet pills is medically unproven, and they do nothing to teach you the healthy lifestyle habits you will need to maintain your weight loss. Furthermore, they can pose some serious risks to your health.
Exercise Every Day
Exercise can be your best friend when it comes to losing weight. In fact, once you get moving, you may find that you don't need to diet as restrictively as you thought you would. Teenagers require at least 60 minutes worth of physical activity every day, and a balanced fitness regimen should consist of aerobic, strengthening and flexibility exercises. You can do multiple activities throughout the day to add up to your one hour, such as walking to school, playing soccer at lunch, biking before dinner and performing crunches and pushups before bed. If you are out of shape, work your way to an hour a day slowly.
Understand Serving Sizes
Though exercise burns calories, you still need to monitor your daily caloric intake to lose weight. One of the simplest changes to make is to reduce the portions of the foods you already eat. Check out the nutrition facts of things you typically consume, and then adjust your servings accordingly. You may unknowingly be consuming much more than the recommended serving sizes, and this can contribute to weight-gain. Once you begin reading food labels, you might also opt for lower-calorie versions of things, such as low-fat yogurt for whole-milk yogurt.
Eat More Fruit
Fruits and vegetables have a large amount of nutrients your body needs to grow and stay healthy. But because they also contain a lot of fiber, eating them multiple times a day can help you stay fuller and less likely to reach for unhealthy snacks. Aim to eat five servings of produce each day, and consider replacing things like chips and fries with grapes and carrot sticks to save calories, not to mention consume more nutrients.
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