The figure is nearly double that what was recorded a decade or so ago. Some blame their present lifestyle while others blame the lack of discipline in teens nowadays. Regardless of the reasons, teen weight problems are real.
But unlike weight loss programs for adults, teen weight loss programs are a little tricky since such programs when left uncheck can be potentially dangerous for their health. Because of the potential danger, dietitian and nutrition experts approach the subject with caution.
The basic problem with teen weight loss is that their bodies are still growing and developing and cutting down food intake will greatly influence their growth. It is therefore important that diet programs for teens should cover all their nutritional needs.
For teenagers, they generally need to grasp some basic concepts about eating right. If they eat too little, their health will be put at risk. But similarly, if they eat more that they should, the extra food turns into body fat causing weight issues. Teenagers should learn to eat food less with saturated fats.
These foods include those fried in fat and oil like fried chicken, burgers, potato chips, french fries, potato chips and other fatty meat. Meanwhile, they also should avoid foods that are high in fat and sugar contents like cakes, chocolates, butter, cream, peanut butter, pies, cookies, and generally any sweets and sweet based desserts.
A lot of diet programs claim to be the best solutions for over weight teens. These claims generally revolve around two basic concepts: the right diet and regular exercise. In reality, the quickest and easiest way for teens to loose weight is still the having the right diet and right exercise. Teens should always avoid diet pills.
Most of the kids or teens today eat fast foods, get exceedingly large food portions and are really extremely lazy lacking the necessary activities to build a healthy body. Simple outdoor activities for teens can help them loose some of their excess body weight. When you cut grass use a push mower, for example. Engage in activities like playing Frisbee which would help you exercise without even realizing it.
There's really no quick way to loose weight. You need to work the excess fat off your body. It is the right combination of diet and exercise which will help you loose weight. But the problem with dieting and exercising is keeping motivated and goal oriented. Kids find dieting intimidating and regular exercise boring.
This is why full family support is necessary if you want your kids to loose some weight. You need to keep your kids and teens motivated. Encourage them and help them overcome their cravings by cooking, serving and eating the same food diets that they eat. Get them to be more active. If they find regular exercises boring, join them in other activities such as sports.
Teach them what to look for when they eat outdoors. Tell them the benefits of foods and teach them how to read food labels. You may be able to control their diet while they stay home but when they go outside and eat with friends, then you might have a problem. It is therefore important in any diet to implant a sense of self discipline and pride in what they do.
Everybody understands what a calorie is -- and everybody "knows" that the best way to lose weight is to begin eating fewer calories per day. Right?
Well, not so fast...
The problem with this way of thinking is that the human body does not burn calories based on a "24 hour day." In fact, the 24 hour day is just an arbitrary interval of time, and it has no bearing on how your body burns calories.
You see, the human body burns calories in "real time" -- or in other words it burns calories as you eat them (it does not burn calories based on a 24 hour day).
This means that your daily caloric intake is almost meaningless when viewed all by itself.
For example, let's take a typical dieter who skips breakfast, but who then eats 900 calories for lunch, 900 calories for dinner and 300 calories for a late night snack - for a total of 2,100 calories per day.
This dieter falsely "thinks" that their intake of 2,100 calories per day is the deciding factor in whether they lose weight or not - but in reality the deciding factor is something totally different...
The "deciding factor" lies in how many calories that they eat per "meal."
For example, if that same dieter took those 2,100 calories per day and divided them evenly into 6 meals (350 calories for 6 meals = 2,100 calories) -- then their body would be able to burn much more of those daily calories throughout the day.
Consequently, the dieter would seriously increase their weight loss results if they did this.
Why is this true?
Simple, because your body burns calories as you eat them, and if you feed your body too many calories at any single "sitting" then the excess calories from that sitting cannot get burned and may wind up stored as fat tissue.
However, if you eat fewer calories per "sitting" then your body has a better chance to burn all of those calories, and if it burns all of the calories at any given meal then your body will be forced to begin burning stored fat tissue for any additional energy that it may need before your next meal (which equals fat loss for the dieter).
So if you eat fewer calories per "meal" but increase the number of meals throughout the day, then you can begin losing more weight while still eating the same number of calories per day (you'll just be doing it via a greater number of meals each day).
So when a dieter uses this method of dieting the "overall calories" consumed each day would be the same, but yet the dieter's body would be able to more efficiently burn those calories on a "per meal" basis - and thus the dieter will lose more weight each day.
Both Jerald Shapiro & Sarah Haley are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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