In the United States alone, nearly one in five teens suffers from obesity.
For a teen, obesity carries a wide range of detriments, but even being a little overweight can feel like a huge burden for a teen.
If you suffer from obesity or overweight, this guide for how to lose weight for teens can help you get in better condition.
What is Obesity?
Your family doctor can help you determine if you fall into the technically obese category.
If you’re 30 pounds or more overweight compared to other kids your age, you might be obese.
Why Obesity is so Unhealthy
Being overweight often makes you feel sad inside.
You might feel like you’re a bad person because you can’t control your eating and drinking.
You can’t keep up with your friends on the sports field, or even walking down the road.
Your clothes don’t fit right, and you feel physically uncomfortable most of the time.
Other kids in school may even make fun of you, pretending to make a joke, but really it’s an insult.
They don’t know how awful you feel inside, and how much you wish you could lose weight.
Health Dangers of Being Obese
Being obese puts your health in jeopardy, too.
Your bones and joints can only support so much weight.
When your hips, knees and feet hurt it’s because they are being strained too much.
Your skin is being overstretched and may even be sensitive in places.
Your heart has to work a lot harder to pump blood.
You might even develop hypertension, a dangerous condition that threatens your life and your eyesight.
Teens Can Lose Weight!
There is good news if you’re a teen who needs to lose weight:
Because you’re young, your body is better able to heal and repair itself.
All of the problems related to obesity can be reversed, including hypertension.
In many cases, teens can lose weight easier than older people, because your metabolism is faster.
You can lose weight and become a healthy, fit individual with many happy years ahead of you.
The time to start is right NOW!
Here’s a step-by-step list of how to lose weight for teens:
1. Avoid Temptations
Junk food and sugary drink temptations are everywhere.
They’re in television commercials, in restaurants, at your friend’s house, and maybe even in your own refrigerator.
The temptations are strong, and since sugar is addicting, you have little power over it.
You’ll need to avoid the temptations as much as possible in order to win the battle.
- Ask parents to stop buying junk food and processed foods
- Watch less TV, so you can avoid tempting junk food commercials
- Don’t linger at vending machines or in the snack aisles at mini-marts
RELATED: HOW TO QUIT YOUR SUGAR ADDICTION IN ONE WEEK: 15 PROVEN TIPS
2. Have Healthy Snacks Available
When your friends offer you a candy bar, reach for your own bag of trail mix instead.
Put a stash of healthy snacks in your locker for between-class pick-me-ups.
Ask your parents to substitute healthy snacks for ice cream, chips and popcorn.
Here are some tasty snack alternatives:
- Fresh Fruit
- Nuts
- Roasted Chickpeas
- Beef Jerky
- Greek Yogurt
- Veggie Snack Packs (raw carrots, snap peas, celery sticks)
RELATED: 15 ZERO CALORIE FOODS FOR WEIGHT LOSS
3. Learn to Cook
Cooking isn’t hard!
When you learn to cook, you have complete control over the ingredients you eat.
Learning to cook will improve your self-esteem, too.
You don’t have to be Rachael Ray or Bobby Flay!
Start with one recipe, then add one more, and so on.
Get a free starter cookbook
Look for recipes with just a few ingredients, like:
- Roasted Asparagus (fresh asparagus, olive oil, salt)
- Chicken Curry (fresh chicken, pre-made curry sauce)
- Mashed Cauliflower (cauliflower, milk, butter)
SEE ALSO: 18 DELICIOUS LOW CARB MEALS FOR WEIGHT LOSS
4. Eat More Often
It doesn’t sound like it makes sense, but the key to weight loss is to eat more frequently.
Each meal or snack should be small.
When you allow yourself to become ravenous by going for long hours without eating, you get desperate.
That’s when those cravings for junk food get worse.
But if you never let yourself go for more than two or three hours between a snack or a small meal, your cravings for junk food will go away.
Keep those healthy snacks handy from number 2, above, so you can eat healthy items on a more frequent basis.
That’s great news right? You don’t have to go hungry to lose weight!
REALTED: 10 TASTY LOW CARB FOOD SWAPS FOR FAST WEIGHT LOSS
5. Get Busy
To lose weight as a teen, you need to be more active.
When you are more active, you’ll build more muscle tissue, which helps you burn more calories.
That way, the food you eat will be used for energy…instead of being stored as fat.
You don’t have to join the track team and run miles every day.
You can choose from many diverse activities that will help you be active and lose weight:
- Walk your dog on a leash instead of just letting him roam the backyard
- Ride your bike to school and work instead of taking the school bus or driving
- Start a building project, like a tree house, or a raised garden bed in the backyard
- Rent or buy a canoe or kayak
- Join a hiking club
- Paint your bedroom
- Start a neighborhood lawn maintenance business
RELATED: 13 EXERCISES THAT BURN THE MOST CALORIES (EVEN MORE THAN RUNNING!)
Finally, remember that losing weight won’t happen overnight.
Don’t weigh yourself every day, because that will just frustrate you.
A weekly weigh-in is sufficient to ensure you’re on the right track.
Soon, you’ll start to notice you’re losing weight just by the way you feel.
In the meantime, be kind to yourself…you CAN do this!
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