It’s hard to know what will work best for you when you’re a teen and trying to lose weight. Your hormones are running riot and your body is still growing and finding its shape, as well as contending with what you are eating and how active you are. There are, however, some simple rules you can follow.
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1. No Pills!
Losing weight when you’re a teen can sometimes be a stressful process, but you should absolutely avoid weight loss pills that are advertised online, on TV and in magazines. Many of these are not recommended by health and nutrition experts and though they might produce some short-term success, they do not teach you how to maintain your weight loss or how to have a healthy diet.
2. Don’t Be Seduced by Adverts
Lots of different weight loss companies will highlight success stories in their advertisements. You must remember that this is purely to win over other competitors, so do not be seduced by these ads and make sure you stick to what feels right for you. This includes meal replacements, meals to your door, supplements, miracle cures et al.
Frequently asked questions
3. Avoid the Word ‘Diet’
You should not be thinking about your weight loss journey as a temporary diet, but more of a healthy, permanent lifestyle change. Once you have reached your target weight, you need to be able to maintain it by carrying on with many of the changes that you have made in the recent past.
4. Reduce Calorie Intake
A simple enough suggestion but a really hard commitment in the long term. Reduce your calorie consumption to lose weight, but never reduce to less than 1200 a day, as this is the minimum that your body needs to be able to function healthily in conjunction with your weight loss.
5. Regular Exercise
It is no over exaggeration that regular exercise is one of the keys to weight loss. Burning more calories than you take in equals weight loss, and this can be achieved through a number of activities such as jogging, swimming, cycling, even fast paced walking.
6. Healthy Diet
The second of the two key tips is to maintain a healthy diet. Cut out sugary treats and foods full of saturated fat and concentrate on eating fruit, vegetables and leaner meats. Remember to maintain a certain level of fiber to help keep yourself fit inside.
7. Drink Lots of Water
Staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water is good for losing belly fat as well as for your overall health. It helps to flush out excess amounts of sugar and sodium in the body and also helps you to feel fuller for longer, reducing the desire to snack.
8. Be Proactive
As an age group, teenagers tend to spend a lot of time sitting idle, either doing homework, watching TV or playing video games. Try to cut out some of this idle behavior by going for walks or shopping trips with friends. Another tip is to make the commitment not to snack when you do find yourself doing a sedentary activity.
9. Keep Tabs with Regular Weight Checks
It is not advisable to weigh yourself every single day, but make sure to keep tabs on your progress with a once weekly weigh in. It will be a good way to measure the speed of your progress and you will be able to tailor your diet and exercise plans according to the rate of your weight loss.
The basic premise of losing weight for teens is to change your habits so weight loss is sustainable and you move into a healthy lifestyle you can follow for the future.
If you’re a teen reader, please share your weight loss stories. What worked for you?
Comments
lalaland: 1200 is a bullshit myth. It's too little for anyone. Anyway, there is NO magic number that can apply to everyone.
Samira: How's it that one of the steps says to avoid the word diet and two steps later says to have a healthy diet 😐😐
Lisa: Oh my god I can't believe that you're suggesting lowering your calorie intake. There are literally so many people that eat an abundance of (plantbased) food and they're really slim. It's not that researched yet if you ask me.
Sarah: I think diet in the first sense was meant as a "Hey eat healthy don't do fad diets" also "diet" by itself is usually in the context of eating less and eating certain foods. "Healthy diet" means "yo put healthy good stuff in your diet." They're two different connotations. I was actually really really happy about this article. I was expecting it to be horribly offensive actually cause I don't really think teen girls need to hate on their bodies... But this was healthy and positive and well done
Vidhi: How to get rid of it ?
Sofiaea: 1200 is fine, most important is breakfast, then no snack, and just eat Real food, if it comes in a box it is not real. Sorry for my english😝
Sofiaea: 1200 is enough if you eat the right food. 100 g snickers is 480 kcal or 100 g carrots is 38 calories. If you are hungry after 1200 calories, you have probably been eating wrong
Vidhi: If one gets a sugar cravings then ?
Marat: Says to avoid the term diet... Proceeds to use "healthy diet" as a topic point
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