Losing weight at any age is a difficult journey to go on, but there is just something about doing it in your teens that can feel trickier than ever. So here's a question: how not to lose weight in your teens. Hmmmm. Maybe that's a better approach than how to lose weight. Keep reading.
Perhaps it's due to the fact that your hormones are raging and your body is still changing, or perhaps it's due to the fact that there are many more social pressures on you at that age, but whatever it is, I know that if successful, you will come out on the other side of your mission a much happier and healthier person. However, this can only be achieved if you lose weight in the correct way. I'm not accusing you of cutting corners here, but I also know that there is plenty of bad weight loss advice out there, especially for teens. Here's how not to lose weight in your teens.
One of the most important answers for how not to lose weight in your teens is to use fad diets. Don’t be tempted and fooled by the list of fad and trendy diets that always tend to make their way into teen sites and teen magazines. Such diets usually require you to completely cut out certain food groups, and although you might lose some weight in the short term, it’s almost impossible to sustain such a diet and you will more than likely put the pounds back on once you reach your goal weight.
The majority of weight loss products, like pills and shake, that you can buy over the counter simply do not work. Some experts would even go so far to say that they are dangerous, especially for a developing teen, because they also encourage you to cut out entire food groups and meals to be replaced with these products. Don’t believe the hype.
You might think that it makes sense to stop eating if you want to start losing weight, but if you go too extreme with it and end up fasting, it can have almost an opposite effect. Not only does starving yourself restrict your intake of valuable nutrients, but it also sends your metabolism into shock and slows it down, which is the exact opposite of what you want your metabolism to be doing in order to burn calories more effectively.
Trying to rid your body of the food that you eat, either via vomiting or via laxatives, is a worryingly common practise among teens. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the health risks that can arise from doing both of these things. Your body is way too precious to abuse like that, and this step can be avoided altogether with just a few simple healthy eating choices.
It didn’t take you a week to put on all of the weight that you want to lose, so it won’t take you a week to get rid of it either. The key goal is to be patient and not be despondent if you only drop a couple of pounds in a week. That’s still a couple of pounds less than you weighed a month ago! Slow and steady weight loss means you are developing better eating habits that will enable you to be better at weight management going forward.