Your Health Coach Says...: Weight Management Strategies for Teens

Statistics show that one in three American kids and teens is overweight or obese. Today, children are presenting with a broad range of health problems that previously weren’t seen until adulthood. High blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol levels are just some of these chronic and life shortening or disabling diseases that are a result of obesity or modest weight gain. There are also psychological effects: Obese children are more prone to low self-esteem, negative body image and depression. What are some weight management strategies for teens that include not only eating properly but include all the other important factors that teens are facing today?

Teens are multitasking, involved in sports, music, clubs and a heavy course-load in school. They are subject to vending machines, coffee shop pick-me-ups and lots of sugar laden drinks. They rely on fast food and convenience foods so over all, teens are consuming a diet very low in nutritional value.

This results in teenagers with not only a nutritionally deficient diet, but all the sugar and high carb foods result in excessive weight gain. Overweight teenagers result in overweight adults. If something is not done to stop the cycle, the risk of a shortened life are high.

When children and teenagers need to lose weight, the whole family needs to be involved. The worst mistake a parent can make is singling out the child and changing only their diet and only their activity level.

A very interesting study showed that teenagers are not necessarily eating MORE food than before resulting in weight gain, but rather it's the TYPES of food that they are consuming. Notably, sugar, simple carbs, sodas.

Weight management strategies for teens include the following:

EAT BREAKFAST Getting out early to school in the morning may leave teenagers skipping breakfast. This is the worst thing to do. Skipping breakfast makes their growing bodies go into starvation mode which slows down their metabolism for the day. A habit of skipping breakfast will do much damage to their metabolism making losing weight that much harder in the future. Eating breakfast makes the body work efficiently and gets their metabolism going for the long day ahead. Kids NEED brain fuel! My kids eat a raw food energy bar, like a Larabar, and have a glass of V8. I also buy uncured, nitrate free, hormone free bacon and cook that up in the microwave and they can grab that and go with a glass of 100% juice. String cheese and fruit is also fantastic to grab and go! Peanut butter on a banana...why not? Great mix of protein and carbohydrate! DO NOT give your children sugar cereal, bagels, pastries, pop tarts, or most foods that we associate with breakfast. They are too carb heavy and sugar laden. Carbs and sugar = WEIGHT GAIN.

HINT: Protein and fat keep your child satiated and feeling full to get them through longer than most traditional breakfast foods.

WELL STOCKED PANTRY Parents can influence their kids choices by keeping a well stocked kitchen filled with healthy foods that are appealing. When your kids are starving and looking for food when they come home from school, keep high quality nutritious food that are easy to eat. Examples: Carrot sticks and whole wheat pita chips with yogurt based dips or hummus. Peanut butter and raisins with whole grain crackers. My kids love pistachios. (they only started loving it when it was the only snack in the house to eat one day and they relented, now it's a food we keep all the time!) Tortilla chips with tomato based salsa. I bet this will be a surprise, but beef jerky is a low calorie, high protein, low fat snack that your kids may love. It's portable and nutritious.

HINT: When you keep high quality food in the house, and keep donuts, cookies, cakes, muffins, chips to an absolute minimum, your kids will be hungry enough to eat the apples and peanut butter, nuts and cheese.

MAKE THEIR LUNCH It may require more work for us, but make your kids lunch every day. You can control what they are eating. The rare times that my kids buy their lunch, they would buy pizza. If left to their own devices, many kids will buy the food at school that appeals to them, and pizza, fried foods and french fry's appeal to them. If you think that your kids won't eat the food you pack, think again, teenagers are always starving. They'll eat it. My daughter is the pickiest eater on the planet, but once she became a teenager, her hunger is now beating out her pickiness. A teenage boy without question will consume anything.

HINT: Unless your teenager is a responsible eater, do not let them pack their own lunches. Oversee it if they do.

DO NOT KEEP SODA IN THE HOUSE Period. I can't stress this enough. The amount of calories in soda and fruit juices replace calories that could be consumed for high quality food! Keep flavored selzer, 100% fruit and vegetable juice, milk or coconut or almond milk, or plain water. That's it. Soda can be a treat on the weekend for one day. My kids had one soda if they wanted, on Sat or Sunday. As a result, my kids drink so little soda and when they do, it's just way too sweet for them. They prefer water every day. And they know they can enjoy soda when they go out once in a while as a sweet treat.

FIBER RICH FOODS Your teenager needs to eat lots of fiber, at least 25 grams for the day. Supplements are key. Make sure the fiber supplement you get has a good mix of soluble and insoluble fiber. Did you know that for every gram of fiber you eat, your body uses 7 calories to process it? This means if you eat 25 grams of fiber every day, you are burning 175 calories a day.

EATING AWAY FROM HOME Your teenager is making their own food choices when they are with friends. All I can say is talk to your kids every day about proper food choices. I constantly have told my kids what foods will keep them healthy. When my kids come down with a cold or virus, I tell them how the proper foods can help them get better faster and even avoid getting sick in the first place. As with everything that a parent has to talk to their kids about, eating properly is another. I relate how their food choices can help with an upcoming competition of any kind. You don't think your kids listen and may think you are nagging, but they are listening. Now that my daughter is in college, she is making very smart food choices all on her own. She has listened to my preaching! I'm happy to hear her say she is splurging on the weekend and having some indulgent food because she's eaten very well all week, which leads me to:

IT'S IMPORTANT TO EAT THE FOODS YOU LOVE Food is associated with pleasure and we need to remember that having a bowl of macaroni and cheese is good for the soul once in a while! Especially for teenagers, they need to make the connection between high quality food that should be eaten on a consistent basis, and food that is to be eaten once in a while and thoroughly enjoyed for what it is. If your kids eat macaroni and cheese every day, they cannot make the connection between fueling your body to do the job it needs to do and work properly and food that is to be consumed as a pleasurable experience with friends and family for celebrations or for occasional indulgences.