Weight gain among the teenage population is growing. In the United States, overweight adolescents constitute up to 17% of the population. Weight gain, outside of the presence of a genetic disorder, is caused by unhealthy eating habits and a sedentary, non-athletic lifestyle. The answer is not dieting!
Regardless of age, dieting is likely to make one lose more water, muscle and healthy calories than fat. However, when one is a teenager, dieting can be even more problematic, stunting one's growth and diminishing bone mass. Dieting will also lessen the ability to achieve academically. The answer is to change one's attitude, eat healthily and exercise regularly.
Changing your Attitude to your Body
Teenagers are bombarded by media images on a daily basis. These images erode fragile self perceptions with the message that to be loved, one has to be shaped according to certain, supposedly perfect, proportions. When teenagers absorb these images and messages, they may turn to self-destructive ways of losing weight, such as starving themselves (anorexia), self-purging (bulimia) or fad diets. None of these ways will help them lose weight over the long term. Nor will they improve their self esteem.