Teenage Weight Loss — How Teenagers Can Safely Lose Weight
Teenagers with body mass indices between 25 and 30 require immediate medical attention. The internal stress caused from so much weight almost guarantees the premature development of medical problems such as diabetes, heart disease, cancers, and stroke.
There’s no question that aggressive weight loss methods are necessary and these teenagers need to be followed by medical experts for years to come. But what about teenagers with body mass indices just below 25? Is it safe for this group of overweight and mildly obese teenagers to lose weight?
The verdict is still out — the weight loss community continues to wait for more evidence supporting aggressive weight loss methods for overweight teenagers. I say while we wait, let’s lose some weight.
But we don’t need to be so aggressive with this group. Overweight teenagers need to lose weight, but in a slow, gradual process. Lasting weight loss and the development of positive habits should replace the push for immediate weight loss in teenagers with body mass indices between 22 and 25.
The there’s the teenager wanting to lose weight for purely cosmetic reasons. How do we approach this fragile situation as parents and professionals? We can’t just say no to her for fear she might turn to unhealthy means to lose weight. But we can’t just give him a green light and say go for it, either.
The rest of this article focuses on the cosmetic teenage weight loss dilemma. The best thing I can do is at least provide some ground rules for teenagers with body mass indices less than 22 who insist on losing weight.
Cosmetic Teenage Weight Loss — The Ground Rules
Here’s a simple, straight forward list of ground rules for teenagers wanting to lose weight for cosmetic reasons:
For the actual steps to safe and effective teenage weight loss, additional information on resistance training, and guidelines for restricting calories, use this link…
To Healthy Living!
Michael A. Smith, MD
Chief Medical Consultant
Diet Basics Website
Dr. Smith is the Chief Medical Consultant for Diet Basics, a content rich website dedicated to all dieters. Visit his site and subscribe to his very popular RSS feed, read by thousands everyday. Diet Basics is dedicated to helping you succeed.
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The Truth About Low Carb Dieting
Every day you walk down the street it is becoming more and more apparent that the average person is becoming larger and this trend has escalated over recent years. Why are they getting fatter? Here are some reasons…
? Less incidental activity
? Automated and computerized lifestyle
? Longer working hours and less leisure
? Increased consumption of processed foods
? Our food servings are larger than ever
Being overweight, or obese, has now moved from a social nuisance and domestic embarrassment to an official disease. The American Heart Association has announced obesity is a major risk for heart disease.
Obesity itself has become a major and dangerous epidemic. More than 70% of US adults are overweight and that figure is rapidly increasing.
What do most people do to rid their body of unwanted fat? They diet! Dieting is now a trillion dollar industry and just about every month a new diet is announced. If you do have weight problems how do you find a diet that is safe, effective and sustainable?
What you do is try to find a diet that includes a variety of foods that you can live with comfortably. You have to take a long-term view and include plenty of exercise. A good diet is one that supplies all of the essential vitamins and minerals, and is not high in fat or protein.
Research on people, who have successfully lost a lot of weight and kept it off long term, shows that the vast majority succeeded by consuming a low fat diet high in fibre coupled with strength training and cardiovascular activity.
Be wary of diets that
? Ban a specific food group
? Promise a quick fix
? Replace a balanced meal with a drink or a snack bar
? Make recommendations based on single studies
? Make recommendations to help sell a single product
Excess weight does not appear overnight and nor will it disappear overnight! In fact the faster you lose weight, the more likely you are to pile the pounds back on. Seek out a program that will help you maintain long-term body fat losses by providing attainable solutions such as a program that promotes lifestyle changes, healthy eating and regular exercise.
Regular exercise is important (i.e. strength training) as it burns fat, boosts your
metabolism and also increases your energy levels. Dietary changes can lead to initial weight loss, but this is only for the short term. Exercise is essential for maintaining weight loss for the long term.
Now let’s take a closer look at what food is made up of and then you will have a good idea of what to look for in your daily eating plan. Firstly we need a wide range of nutrients to perform various functions for a healthy life.
These nutrients include carbohydrates, proteins and fat and are all present in the food we eat on a daily basis.
The foods containing these nutrients are cereals, legumes, nuts, vegetables, fruits, milk products and flesh foods (fish, meat and poultry).
We need all these nutrients to live and thrive and since we receive them through the food we eat, our food must be well balanced and in the proper proportions. Food is a fuel; the body requires this fuel for energy, which is measured in fats, carbohydrate and protein.
Each of these nutrients provides different amounts of energy and these are measured in calories.
Nutrient Calories per Gram
Carbohydrate 4
Protein 4
Fat 9
Let’s look at carbohydrates first, carbohydrates supply energy for our body, they provide fibre for the prevention of disease and taste and texture to food. They are found in cereals, potatoes, fruits and vegetables.
They come in two basic forms, simple and complex. Simple carbs are easily identified by their taste and are sweet. Complex carbs, such as potatoes are pleasant to the taste buds, but are not sweet.
They are then divided into two groups, high fibre and low fibre.
High-fibre foods are the healthiest choices for nutrition and the intake of these foods is associated with a lower incidence of cancer and diabetes. Carbohydrates supply the sort of calories easily burned during cardiovascular exercise.
They are often wrongly feared and considered fattening, but the most important factor in weight control is balancing the energy (calories) consumed. Please remember:
ENERGY IN is more than ENERGY OUT = Weight gain
ENERGY IN is equal to ENERGY OUT = Weight maintenance
ENERGY IN is less than ENERGY OUT = Weight loss
Different foods affect the ability to exercise at different levels. High levels of exercise (cardio and strength training) require carbohydrate as a fuel source; at lower levels it is fat.
A lack of carbohydrate in the diet will lead to fatigue, the inability to exercise effectively, and excess fat consumption. When our food is digested, carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars.
These sugars are absorbed by the body and used by the muscles or stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver. As our glycogen storage capacity is limited, carbohydrate needs to be continually topped up by the foods we eat.
BUT THE BODY HAS AN UNLIMITED STORAGE CAPACITY FOR FAT!
The average person is extremely vulnerable to fad diets and extreme dieting behaviours. The low carbohydrate diet is one of the latest eating plans to hit the streets. This current diet craze is very popular but there are safer and more effective methods based on scientific research, to reduce body fat levels.
LOW CARBOHYDRATE DIETING IS SIMPLY WRONG.
Why is this? Just as a car runs better on a certain fuel, so does the human body. Unfortunately the latest low-carbohydrate fad diets are not the fuel mix the human body was designed to run on.
Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram, whereas fats contain 9 calories per gram. For weight loss, the priority is to decrease total calorie intake. Reducing the amount of fat in the diet will make the biggest difference in reducing total daily calorie intake and hence weight loss.
CARBOHYDRATE INTAKE IS NOT FATTENING.EXCESS CALORIE INTAKE IS FATTENING
If you aren’t having enough carbohydrates in your diet you will experience:
? Fatigue due to low blood sugar levels inadequate intake of vitamins and minerals
? Low fibre intake, which may affect bowel movements
? ‘Bad’ breath due to the breakdown products of fats (called ketones)
The bottom line for carbohydrates and weight loss is to:
? Try to balance carbohydrate intake with activity levels
? Maintain energy levels by eating carbohydrate rich foods on a regular basis
? Carbohydrate rich foods are normally low in fat and nutrient-rich
A real weight loss program includes all the food groups, strength training, and low-level aerobics, a slight decrease in your daily calorie levels and a program that can be followed for life.
Above all try to achieve a balanced diet, eating a balanced variety of foods will help you to feel great every day, ensure better long-term health and improve weight control.
Gary Matthews is a trainer from “down under” who has been coaching clients from athletes to bodybuilders for two decades. You may contact Gary directly at [email protected] and visit his website at
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