Obesity In Teens Is Common.....But Doesn't Mean It's OK For You To Be ObeseI want to talk about obesity in teens because it affects your health. You'd to cope with high blood pressure, heart diseases, strokes & diabetes (which at one time affecting only adults), not counting depression and low self esteem. I receive lots of e-mails from teens asking for help on how to tackle obesity in teens. I know, I know. Being teens, you're very impressionable and care about what others (especially the opposite sex) think of your weight and body shape. This obsession coupled with the frustration and desperation, you even afflict your body and jeopardize your health by lapsing into being an anorexic, a bulimic or a binge eater, to try solve your problem. I want to say upfront here - don't shortchange your health for all these destructive eating habits because your body deserves better treatment than these and you deserve to enjoy good health and a good life. They're short-term escapades and won't solve your teen obesity. Trust me. I'll give you a practical and do-able solution, to positively combat your condition. I'll present it in a simple and concise way for you to understand it easily.
The 3 biggest culprits: 1. A poor diet that's high in fat, carbohydrates (carbs) and sugar This is the top reason for obesity in teens. Do you know 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories, compares to 1 gram of carbs or protein which contains only 4 calories? So it follows that the more fat you eat, the more calories you consume. Fat is really bad for health because it's the culprit that narrows your blood arteries hence in turn increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and strokes. Carbs and sugar cause your blood sugar levels to go on a roller coaster ride. They shoot up high and plunge down fast, affecting your body's insulin response. Seeing the high blood sugar level, your body releases more insulin to counteract the effect. The result? You've unstable blood sugar levels which cause you to gain weight. This is because as your insulin increases, you crave for more sugar and your body may not be able to convert all the sugars into energy and would thus store them as fat. Foods high in fat? All animal meat that's laden with layers and layers of fat; full creamed dairy products like milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, ice cream; cakes and confectioneries Foods high in carbs and sugar? White bread; pasta; noodles, white rice; crackers; sugared drinks & beverages; cakes, biscuits, cookies, confectioneries..... Really, this kind of poor diet spikes up teen obesity in no time. How to circumvent this poor diet pattern to combat teen obesity? Try cutting down on your fat and carb intake.
Tell me, when's the last time you get out from your couch and get going? Exercising? Well, may be you do move around, here and there - a few minutes of walking; a few minutes of running to catch a bus to school and some walking while attending classes. That's activity all right and of course it's good for you; at least it's better than lazing around like a potato couch. But what I'm really talking here is that you lack, say 3-4 times or 4-5 times per week, for at least 30 minutes per session kind of regular exercise program. A committed exercise program. Why do you think lack of (regular) exercise is a major cause of teen obesity? Simple. The gist of exercise (cardio) is that it helps:
Can you see that I purposely list speeding up metabolism to burn off excess fat, right at the top? Precisely the point. If exercise helps you to burn off excess fat, then if you don't exercise, naturally your metabolism slows down, you store fat and gain weight.
In other words, you overeat. This is the primo cause of obesity in teens. When you eat like that (eat more calories than you burn off), your body stores the extra calories as fat. I want to point out here that if you put on a couple of lbs, you aren't facing a health risk yet. It's when you continue to eat more calories than you burn, more and more fat that's not burned would be stored in your body. Eventually, your body could get to a point where it has so much body fat that it causes a negative effect on your health. You could start to develop weight-related health problems (that at one time used to affect only adults.....) such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and heart diseases & strokes. This is the most worrisome effect of obesity in teens. So if you eat more calories in a day, get active and exercise, to burn off the calories. To count calories, keep it simple. To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. To maintain weight, you burn what you eat. If you upset this calorie balance , you put on weight. Go for gradual weight loss of say 1 lb per week, which is the safe and healthy way. 1 lb of weight = 3,500 calories. To lose 1 lb of weight, you create a caloric deficit of 500 per day, through exercise and a healthy diet. So, 500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories = 1 lb of weight per week. of course you can say you want to create this caloric deficit by just eating a healthy diet alone or by just exercising alone. The problem is that with diet alone, your body's metabolism could slow down (granted that certain foods can increase metabolism ), causing you to store calories not burned up, as fat). Because you don't exercise, you could start to lose your lean muscle mass, which is the very INGREDIENT that speeds up your metabolism, to burn off calories. So, lack of lean muscle mass is what causes obesity in teens. Another danger - you could resort to eating very few calories and plunges your body into a "starvation mode". Your body takes cue from the very few calories you eat that you're facing "starvation", hence it slows down your metabolism in order to conserve food (and energy), by storing them as fat, to prevent you from "starving". And then if you go back and forth, up and down, over and over in your dieting, you'll find that with each crash diet, it becomes easier to gain weight and harder to lose it. This means it makes you resist to losing weight since your body lowers the metabolism to prevent starvation. This cycle continues - losing lean muscle mass and increasing fat further slows down metabolism and you need to cut down calories even more to lose fat. This kind of yo-yo dieting also causes loss of glycogen and water and leads to vitamin & mineral deficiencies, kidney problems, weakness, fatigue and nausea. What happens if you just bank on exercise alone? You won't like it at all; you got to do tons of exercise to burn off the calories. The best bet? Go for the combo of exercise and healthy diet. It's the best weapon to combat obesity in teens.
There are other causes. Read them here. Nowadays, obesity in teens is common. But common doesn't mean it's OK to be obese. You know it isn't. Cut down the calories the way I show you and exercise (do cardio) 3-4 times or 4-5 times per week for at least 30 minutes per session, to crank up your metabolism, to burn off calories. Don't let obesity take control of your life. You know, you slip into a depression and have a low self esteem. Take charge of your life - change the way you eat; change the way you exercise. Don't have to be big changes. Just start by cutting back on cokes, pass up on second helpings and exercise more, even just 5-10 minutes. Build your way up to big changes by making a series of small ones first. And ask for help when you feel you can't cope on your own. You know you aren't alone. Your parents,siblings, friends and teachers, are willing to help you. Bookmark this page? Click one of the little buttons below and you're done. Back to top
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