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Dietician Sheela Seharawat

Weight loss and diet tips for the teenagers

During the years of rapid hormonal changes, constantly changing bodies and social roles, teenage is the period when appearance and looks matters a lot and in particular the weight. At this phase of life all of us want to look great, smart and handsome and we feel good about it and as we result teenagers put themselves into a roller coaster ride of weight loss and improper dietary trials like skipping meals, using weight loss pills and taking to crash diets to lose weight and even taking steroids without understanding the health hazards that these experiments can bring.

Gaining weight is much easier than losing, but by adhering to simple disciplines and lifestyle changes it is much easier for teenagers to lose weight and stay healthy. Following some simple regimes like the ones mentioned below, weight loss and healthy living becomes much easier and less stressful for teenagers:

• Set a goal: the first step in maintaining a healthy weight is to determine and decide how much is to be lost and noted down. Determine the amount of weight to be shredded by calculating the BMI, so that the normal weight is calculated.
• Take help of a food guide: what you eat determines your metabolic rate, which in turn determines how fast or slow your body fat burns. Selecting wrong foods could have adverse effects and hence consulting a dietician is important in the selection of the right foods.
• Modify and change habits: changing or adjusting eating and living habits have considerable impacts on weight gain and loss. Skipping meals, particular breakfast, eating in inappropriate timings, snacking or munching before bedtime, eating too fast, filling own self with desserts are some unhealthy habits that should be immediately modified to have better results from the diets.
• Keep count on calories: the body needs certain amount of calories on daily basis, and when this changes due to dieting or overeating, the body metabolism rate changes that can lead to weight gain. A proper diet put the body on the right amount of calories depending on the age, weight and height.
• Focus on quality: along with the calorie count, the quality of the food that the body intakes is also important. In order to lose weight in a healthy way, meals should be balanced with all food groups like carbs, proteins and fats, and all that the body needs. Veggies, lentils, fruits and nuts are important component of a teenage diet which are rich in proteins and fibers. The crux is teenage foods should be of quality, but in moderation.
• Exercise and sleep well: physical activity combined with good rest and good diet is the key to healthy living for any age group. As teenagers it is important to stay active as it burns of excess fat and release toxins out of the body and sleep changes the chemical levels of the body controlling the appetite.
• Keep portion sizes in control: it is important to educate teenagers to take their first serving in limited quantities and smaller portions. This way they will not only eat what is enough and avoid overeating, but will also be a responsible person by not wasting foods. In case if they are still hungry, can help themselves with second serving.