Losing weight as a teen will depend a lot on your individual lifestyle and motivation. Being at a healthy weight is important as a teenager because not only will it make you feel better about yourself, it will also help you maintain your overall health throughout your lifetime. If you are concerned about your weight you should talk to your doctor or nutritionist to determine if weight loss is necessary.

Obesity amongst youth and teens is growing at epidemic proportions. Overweight teens are more likely to develop into overweight adults, carrying heightened risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, shortened lifespan and some forms of cancer. With the tremendous social pressure to be model-thin and physically attractive, being overweight is often associated with low self esteem, poor body image and depression.

Weight Loss Plan for Teens

Walk

Walking can be one of the most effective ways of losing that extra bulk and keeping healthy as well. Walking exercises the whole body and hence is a very good way to keep fit. If possible, buy a pedometer and attach it to your waist so that you can keep a track of how much you have walked. Start slow and then as days pass by, you can increase the distance you walk each day. For example, start by walking a mile and then as you get comfortable increase this to say 2, 3 and 4.

Take the Long Term Approach

Look at what you are about to undertake not as a short term, quick, weight loss, but rather a change in lifestyle to last a lifetime. You will begin to make more nutritious food choices, add exercise, and cut back somewhat on your eating. If you falter along the way, you don’t need to look at it as a failure because you know that you have a long time to make the changes.

For example, if you go with your friends to eat at a fast food restaurant, and you indulge in a large order of fries, there is no need to feel guilty because you know that eating them is not a regular habit, and that at the next meal you will eat more sensibly.

Healthy Eating is Best

Rather than focusing on dieting, emphasis should be placed on a healthy overall lifestyle. Parents should provide healthy food choices for the entire family, rather than ostracizing a teen while he or she is on a “special diet.” Stock up on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and modest amounts of healthy fats. Avoid fast food and keep tempting junk food such as processed chips, candy or other desserts out of the home. Lead by example–the healthier the family is, the healthier the teens will be.

Avoid Fast Food

Avoiding fast food can be quite a challenge, especially for the teens because these are simply addictive. The more fast food you eat, the more you want. Hence, it is very important to learn to eat healthy when you are young because once you get hooked onto fast food during your teens, it becomes really difficult to let go off this addiction. If you can muster up the courage to avoid having fast food, it will help you as an adult.

Many adult who are overweight started to eat these so called fast food when they were young. Probably, they did not know how to eat healthy, but this does not necessarily mean that you cannot change your habits. Always remember, life will be much easier if you learn to eat right when you are still young.

Add Daily Exercise

I suspect that you may be caught in a vicious cycle of not exercising, eating and not having energy. Exercising actually makes you feel more energetic once you have made a habit of it. If you don’t feel like you have energy to exercise now, start out with some physical activity that will get you moving, but won’t require a lot energy.

How about taking the dog for a walk? Or, if you don’t have a dog, take the neighbor’s dog for a walk. Once you have done some walking, every day for a couple of weeks, try running for a short distance. Get out on your bicycle, or roller blades, or shoot some baskets in the driveway. If you are at a loss for exercise ideas, speak to your gym teacher. I’ll bet they would love to help you out. Most teachers are thrilled with kids that are self-motivated to improve.

Sweets

If stopping sweets altogether is not possible, limit the intake because sweets can surely put on some weight in your body. If you do crave for something sweet, munch on some sugar free candy or fruit instead of having something which has heaps of sugar in it.

Healthy Food

Having fresh, green vegetables is a good way of staying healthy, getting all the required vitamins and calories and losing weight in the process. But make sure you don’t go on an all out vegetarian diet. Having fish, eggs, meat is also necessary because these provide various important minerals and proteins to the body which will ultimately help you to be fit and lose the extra weight.

So, you see the most healthy way to reduce weight is to eat healthy and regular exercise. It doesn’t matter how attractive the instant methods of losing weight might look, instead of using them, follow the tried and tested method and you will see the results.