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Exercise Plan for Teen Weight Loss

Overweight teens face a tremendous amount of stress, ranging from peer teasing and poor self image to serious health concerns. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, obese teenagers also face an increased likelihood of premature death. Because of these factors, many teens choose to exercise in an attempt to lose weight. With some essential knowledge and a structured exercise regimen, overweight teens can lose weight while also adopting a healthier lifestyle.

  1. Take Gym Classes

    • Teens enrolled in schools with rigorous physical education (PE) programs may choose to enroll in these courses for a mandatory daily dose of exercise. Typical physical education programs at high schools include running, jogging, aerobic sports and occasional fitness tests. According to the American Heart Association, as reported in Family Education, teens should perform physical activity that raises their heart rates for 20 consecutive minutes at least three times each week. In a typical high school PE program, teens can get this level of activity five days per week during the school year. As an added benefit, teens may find PE exercise programs compulsory, as their grades depend on their performance. Although not all teens may have immediate access to physical education classes, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aims to have at least half of all high school students enrolled in physical education courses by 2010 and to have all enrolled students physically active for at least half of the PE course.

    Engage in Aerobic Exercise Before or After School

    • In contrast to the American Heart Association's recommendation, the teen physical-fitness website Teen Growth recommends that teens engage in at least 40 consecutive minutes of exercise four times per week in order to lose weight. Social teens may find this level of activity in team sports like basketball or hockey, while more solitary teens may prefer running, skating or cycling. For very overweight teens, 40 minutes of brisk walking can help shed pounds, though teens accustomed to a sedentary lifestyle may start with as little as five minutes of rigorous exercise and work up to the 40-minute objective. Teens should use caution, though, to work exercise into a daily routine, else they may lose interest, burn out or otherwise stop exercising altogether.

    Use Caution When Dieting

    • Many teens may be tempted to partner their exercise regimen with extensive dieting in order to accelerate weight loss, but only the heaviest teens should attempt this strategy, and they should do so only under the supervision of a nutritionist who specializes in teen dieting. According to the teen weight loss resource OverweightTeen.com, growing teens require a higher caloric intake than adults to fuel their active lives and growing bodies. The organization also cited a September, 2009 Harvard Medical School study that found dieting teens tend to overeat excessively between diets, leading many dieting teens to ultimately gain weight rather than losing it. For this reason, teens should rely more heavily on daily integration of exercise into their lives than on dieting for long-term, effective weight loss.

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