Parents can help by removing milk products, carbonated drinks, juices, junk foods and fatty foods from the home and the family’s diet. You know your teen best. Some teens respond to a global change quickly, but most weight loss programs that are successful achieve this by removing one type of product at a time from the diet. The goal for your teen is not to lose weight quickly but to change their eating habits that last a lifetime.
Keep nutritious snacks in the home. Teens snack constantly! They will reach for what is available and if chips and dip are handy that is what they’ll be eating. Try to keep grapes cleaned and off their stems in the fridge for an easy snack, apples, celery and peanut butter and bananas all make good quick snacks also.
Teens often suffer from poor self-esteem and poor self-motivation and it is the parent’s job to help gently encourage them. Weight loss programs using pills for teens are not effective because they often affect a growing body adversely. Teenagers continue to require appropriate nutrition to feed their growing body.
Teen weight loss programs can easily become a tug of war between parent and child. This only sets up the teen for failure. Make the process fun. Keep your patience and look for ways to make learning fun. Look for ways to keep your teen active through after school activities or sports. Today’s teenagers are well versed at the computer and gaming. Our responsibility is to teach them that movement and activity can be just as fun. Learning life long habits that will keep them healthy and fit will increase the success rate of any weight loss program.
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