Top 10 weight loss tips for teens

According to the American Obesity Association, 30.4 percent of young people ages 12 to 19 are considered overweight, 15.5 percent are classified as obese and the prevalence of obesity within this age group has more than doubled over the past 25 years. Yet, there is hope.

"The good news is that adolescents can achieve a healthy weight by making simple lifestyle changes," said Lisa Talamini, RD, vice president of research and program innovation for Jenny Craig Inc.

Here are some of Talamini's top tips for teens:

1 Plan to be active every day. Enjoy fun activities with friends such as volleyball, dancing, tennis and biking. A day of shopping at the mall can also burn calories.

2 When eating out with friends, teens can use the time to get filled in on each other's news, without "filling out" on food they may not need.

3 Watch portion sizes and try to make lower-fat/lower-calorie selections. At a fastfood restaurant, pair a small burger with a veggie-packed side salad and lightly drizzle fatfree or reduced-fat dressing on top.

4 Get a groove on and get a great workout with "Dance Dance Revolution" on a gaming console. Walk, run and dance to favorite iPod tunes.

5 Ask parents to stock the refrigerator with ready-to-eat fruits, salads and raw veggies.

By John Barban
www.eatstopeat.com

A commonly held belief about food is that you need to eat frequent meals to keep your metabolism going and to keep burning calories. I’m not exactly sure where this idea came from but it makes absolutely no sense to me.

In fact, to me it sounds like this nonsense about eating food to keep your metabolism going is a clever myth that only supports the food and nutritional supplement industry. The latest fad in nutrition is eating 6 small meals per day instead of 3. That is 3 more meals the food industry can sell you products for! It won’t be long until you will be told to eat 9 small meals per day.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve read the research and there is a small increase in metabolism that happens whenever you eat. However, the little effect food does have on your metabolism cannot overcome the weight gain you would experience from eating too many calories overall.

If you apply this idea to the calories you are eating, then eating a 100 calories might make you burn an extra 15 calories, but you still have an another 85 extra calories that you haven’t burned off.

So does this mean eating at an all you can eat buffet is the best way to �rev up’ your metabolism and burn lots of calories? Not likely! That just sounds ridiculous.

Let’s look at this in a real life scenario to see how far off this logic is.

By Pat Barone
www.patbarone.com
10 Reasons Diets Fail

For every 100 dieters, one will maintain their weight loss after 5 years, which is the marker determining permanent weight loss to the medical community. Research indicates diets actually add pounds in the long run.

Why are diets so destructive to our weight and health? Here are some of the reasons.

1. Severe food restriction causes real hunger.

It's a fact that most diets last less than 72 hours. Hunger is a basic human urge. Man continues to survive (and has for thousands of years) because of the ability to cope with famine and scarcity of food. Hunger has been the powerful motivator for that survival.

2. A diet is an artificial plan which is different from your lifestyle.

Your new diet book has pages and pages of special recipes but you don't like to cook. Your diet says you must prepare all your food, but your job requires you to entertain clients. Only you can set the boundaries around eating and make them work within your lifestyle.

3. A diet is a temporary solution to a permanent problem.

The diet industry makes billions (yes! over $42 billion a year) by convincing people to follow a diet for a few weeks or months to solve lifelong problems of emotional eating, eating for the wrong reasons or eating food that is nutrition-less. Once a diet ends, the weight comes back because the problems and behaviors are still there. Maybe you squeezed yourself into the bridesmaid's dress in time for the wedding, but you still have the rest of your life ahead of you.

A first step toward success is to accept that there is no free ride. If you lose weight on a strict diet, you will always pay for it later.