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Diet & Exercise Plans for Teens

Childhood obesity has been on the rise in the United States since the 1980s, and overweight children lead to overweight teenagers. Although no definitive studies reveal all the reasons for the increase in childhood obesity, many experts believe a combination of sedentary lifestyle and poor food choices are the primary culprits. By instilling in teenagers a desire for a healthy balance of exercise and nutritious meals, experts believe the trend toward obesity can be reversed.

  1. Evaluation

    • The teenage years can be challenging for both teens and their parents. Huge changes are going on physically, hormonally and emotionally. Body image and self-esteem issues become increasingly important as all of these changes seem to throw teens' bodies out of whack. Take the time to help your teen evaluate how he feels about his body. Discuss with your teen how proper diet and exercise can play a role in helping her develop a strong and healthy body which can, in turn, help to improve her self-image.

    Diet

    • The word "diet" may conjure images of a large plate sparsely populated with a few carrots and celery sticks. Explain to your teen that "diet" simply means "what you eat." A healthy diet doesn't mean giving up all the stuff your teen loves to eat. It does mean helping him learn to balance his food intake. The U.S. government's Food Guide Pyramid, which was updated in 2005, recommends teens eating a variety of foods from each of the food groups including grains, vegetables, fruits, oils, dairy and meats and beans. The amount of food consumed should be determined by how active your teen is. Teens who are active in sports will need to eat more than teens who spend more of their time reading. Work with your teen to develop a menu of foods she enjoys while introducing new foods to expand her culinary experiences and tickle her taste buds.

    Exercise

    • Diet alone will not produce healthy bodies in teens or anyone else. In order to optimize health a person needs to exercise. Teens need to get a total of 60 minutes of aerobic exercise each day. Fortunately, this doesn't have to all happen at the same time. Talk with your teen about dividing the day up into sections with exercise time a part of each section. Biking, running, dancing, swimming--anything that gets the heart rate up is considered aerobic exercise. No special equipment is needed to exercise. Teens can do sit-ups or push-ups in their bedroom. Walking up and down the stairs for a few minutes is a great way to get the heart pumping. Of course, if your teen is involved in a sport chances are he is getting plenty of aerobic exercise. A recent Australian study (Patton GC, Selzer R, Coffey C, Carlin JB, Wolfe R: Onset of adolescent eating disorders: population based cohort study over 3 years. BMJ 1999;318:765-768 [20 March]), found that exercise was actually more effective than diet in reducing obesity in teens. The key to maintaining a healthy exercise routine is consistency.

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