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Follow on Google News | Teenage Weight Loss: 5 Tips to Help Your Teenager Reach a Healthy WeightIs your teenager overweight? Has your doctor told you that your teen has to lose weight but you as the parent are at a loss for what to do? Learn 5 ways to help your teenager lose weight in a safe and healthy way.
By: Belinda Kan - Healthy Affordable Weight Loss More and more, pediatricians are telling parents that they must help their children lose weight. However, because 60% of Americans are currently overweight or obese, the parents themselves might not know what do to do. Doctors are not necessarily educated on nutrition, and while nutritionists and dietitians can sometimes be helpful, most of the time those eating plans go out the window if the teen is not motivated or feels singled out because the rest of the family is not eating the same way. The problem is not necessarily the extra weight that teens carry. The problem is usually teens are modeling poor eating habits after their parents or friends. Skipping breakfast, eating fast food after school, and leading a sedentary lifestyle of less physical education at school and more video games at home are all contributing factors. No wonder teenage weight loss is such a challenge! Certified Health Coach Belinda Kan, who works with both teens and adults, has noticed some key features of successful teenage weight loss and offers 5 tips to make the process more compassionate, effective and fun: 1. Get your teen ready and make it a family affair. Enroll him in the process by asking him if he is willing to work with you on something the doctor said was important. Your teen may already feel uncomfortable among his peers due to his weight, and treating him like he has a problem will only add to his discomfort. Teens do not want to feel "weird," they want to fit in. Make a commitment as a family to learn and implement healthier eating habits together, and this will make it easier for your teen to eat healthier. 2. Get your home ready. You may not be able to control what your teen eats at school and when he's out with his friends, but at least you can create an environment of health inside the home. As part of your agreement to make it a family effort to eat healthier, get rid of the soda, chips, ice cream, sugary cereals, and candy. It might be difficult at first, because you might be used to thinking that you "need" to buy these foods for the kids and their friends. But take a stand as the parent and insist that if the goal is for your teen to lose weight and eat healthier, these foods cannot be in the home. Imagine how he would feel if he was told that he couldn't eat chips, but then he sees you eating them! If they really want it, they will find a way to get it - outside of the home. And think about the money you will save when you don't have to buy these nutrient-poor foods anymore! 3. Get educated. Enroll the assistance of a health coach, nutritionist, dietician or other nutritional consultant who has specific protocols for teenagers and has good "bedside manners" with them. Some nutrition experts only look at calories and food groups but ignore the social life and food preferences of the teen. If a teenager doesn't like a turkey sandwich with carrot sticks on the side, he isn't going to eat it! It's important that the consultant can determine what foods the teen does like to eat, and which ones would fit into a healthy eating plan. Not only will this help the teen learn how to fit healthy eating into his day, but you may also learn some new things about your child. 4. Add a protein-packed breakfast. Teenagers are not only growing rapidly, but they need to have a healthy breakfast to get their minds ready for learning. Oftentimes, teens run out the door to school without eating anything. This creates a situation where their blood sugar gets low, they can't focus on their classes, and they are starving by lunchtime so they overeat at school, where they aren't served the healthiest lunch. A breakfast that includes protein (not just a bowl of sugary cereal) will kick start their metabolism, wake up their brains, and prevent them from overeating at lunch. Some examples are eggs with toast, greek yogurt with fruit, or a protein shake or bar if time is an issue. 5. Pack healthy snacks and water in their backpacks. Teen weight loss is often thwarted by school vending machines and after-school trips to fast-food restaurants. Fast-food, soda, chips, and candy bars are completely empty calories that contribute nothing to the nutritional needs of a teenager. Find out what kind of portable protein-filled foods your teen would be willing to eat - nuts, fruit, protein bars, protein shakes - and arm him with this artillery to fight off his hunger. Teach him to eat every 2-3 hours so that he doesn't become ravenous for lunch or dinner. If he learns to fuel his body proactively with healthy foods, he can still go out with his friends but may not be as tempted to eat the unhealthy foods in a reactive fashion. "Helping your teen lose weight might seem like a tall order, but if the whole family supports the teen in his efforts, everybody wins," says Belinda. "If you as parents have guilty feelings that it's somehow your fault that your teen is overweight, set them aside and don't make the issue about you, make it about improving your child's life for now and for the future." If you want to learn more easy and economical ways that the whole family can eat healthier, you can download a free guide called "How to Eat Healthier with Limited Time and Money" on Belinda's website, http://www.HealthyAffordableWeightLoss.com. There you will get information for teens and adults on healthy weight loss and weight maintenance strategies. # # # Healthy Affordable Weight Loss is a website and blog whose mission is the cut through the confusion of diets and exercise and make the goal of losing weight for health reasons easy and accessible to people of every social class and of every lifestyle. End
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