Being overweight is not only an adult issue but many children and teens are troubled with this frustration. With children the matter is better handled by their parents but teenagers are likely to attempt weight loss without the advice of an adult. This can result in eating disorders and or other health problems. It is best if loving adults help their teens lose weight.

Losing weight as a teen is far different from losing weight as an adult. Weight loss in a teen depends on their age, the metabolic rate, their eating habits, as well as the type of lifestyle they lead. Losing weight is often easier for teens than for adults. This can be attributed to the fact that a younger body typically burns calories more efficiently and faster. Additionally, many teens are more active than the typical adult; they enjoy doing exercise, walking, jogging or participating in some form of sport.

These types of exercises will only help to boost the metabolism of a teenager, and also increase the amount of calories that they burn. If a teen is not interested in sports he may find that spending time walking or gardening is more to the liking. Other options are finding chores that require a little physical activity or spending playful time with the family dog.

Because teens, perhaps even more than adults, want to see immediate results when they begin a diet plan, using a fad diet for a very short period of time may be a good start. If this is done the teen should not use the diet for more than a week. It is widely accepted that fad diets can be detrimental to the health of the user so it is never advisable to use such a diet for long periods of time. After about a week of using a fad diet, they should then continue on a much more healthy diet regime, and one which allows them to lose weight more slowly (which is the best way to lose weight healthily).

When on a diet, a teen should also lead a more active kind of life; they can do this by exercising whenever possible, or participate in some sporting activity. This is especially important for teenagers, as they are still growing, and therefore their body requires additional food just as it requires extra rest. Exercise helps to remove some of the extra calories they are gaining from the extra food they are eating.

Teens that are involved in sports often report that they have an increased social circle, which results in more variety to their life, and that equals more fun and more activities. It’s a win-win situation. The pleasure these teens enjoy means that there is a reduction in their fatigue and frustration. All the while they are getting more and more fit and building more stamina.

Learning about your metabolic rate will help you to understand how your body uses calories. The more you learn about this process the easier it will be for you to work with your metabolism to burn calories more efficiently.

There’s always someone out there telling us we can lose fat without watching our diet and without any exercise. As much as we’d like to believe that’s true, deep down inside we know better. The ads promising that we can ‘get slim quick’ remind us of the ‘get rich quick’ infomercials we see on late-night television. Still, there’s no shortage of ‘get slim quick’ products out there.

A YaHoo search of the term “Easy Weight Loss” yielded about 10,600,000 hits.

A Google search of the phrase “Quick Weight Loss” showed about 14,300,000 recommended sites to visit.

Looking up “Easy Fat Loss” on YaHoo revealed about 4,290,000 answers.

Finally, running a Google search for “I want to lose weight but I don’t want to exercise because I don’t have the time, money or will power” will bring up about 633,000 sites. We’re not kidding!

Compare that to the Google results for “Weight Loss Truth”: only about 2,760,000.

PERMANENT FAT LOSS REQUIRES EFFORT:

Let’s face it, there really is no good way to lose fat without any effort. Successful and permanent weight (fat) loss takes some time, it takes some effort, and it certainly requires some exercise. Consider what Dr. Gabe Mirkin had to say on the subject: “There are many products on the market today that promise to help you lose weight. None will help you unless they get you to exercise more and eat fewer calories.” (Source: The Sportsmedicine Institute, Inc. – DrMirkin.com)

DON’T BE TEMPTED BY SHORTCUTS:

So is it possible to lose weight quickly? Sure, but weight loss achieved quickly and/or by ‘cheating’ will never be permanent and is usually not healthy.

Remember the phen-fen pills that were popular just a few years ago? While they certainly helped you lose weight, they were withdrawn from the market in September of 1997 after being linked to the occurrence of serious cardiac valvular disease, and primary pulmonary hypertension.

Ephedra, another weight loss pill, was pulled from shelves on April 12, 2004. After a careful review of the available evidence about the risks and benefits of ephedra in supplements, the FDA found that these supplements present an unreasonable risk of illness or injury to consumers. The data showed little evidence of ephedra’s effectiveness, except for short-term weight loss, while confirming that the substance raises blood pressure and stresses the heart (Source: nccam.nih.gov).

Please note that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that ephedra was effective for only short-term weight loss. Does that sound like a permanent solution?

There are lots of other ‘shortcuts’ out there, from laxatives to harsh stimulants. There are also some honestly good products that can help us lose fat if they are used in conjunction with regular exercise and healthy nutrition. Green tea is a good example. Clinical studies conducted by Dr. Abdul Dulloo, of the University of Geneva in Switzerland brought the conclusion that green tea weight raises metabolic rates and speeds up fat oxidation (Source: green-tea.dminternational.biz).

THE TAKE-HOME MESSAGE:

So what’s the take-home message? The bottom line is that there is no ‘get slim quick’ miracle out there. The only way to achieve permanent fat loss is by following the same advice we’ve been hearing for years: exercise regularly and watch what we eat.

Let’s watch out for products that claim we can achieve the body we’ve always wanted without diet or exercise. We know that’s not true, so let’s not be tempted by the empty promise.