Teenager Weight Management: How to manage your child’s weight?
If your child is way too skinny or overweight, they must have come home and shared an episode of how some friends or peers had some fun at their expense. Weight management for teens is an important issue to address, a difficult one for sure. Every teenager has a delicate emotional spectrum, as a parent,issues must be dealt with without making them a reason for insecurity. Whether your child is excessively slender, or overweight, comorbidities surround them.
Studies from Stanford suggest that obese teenagers grow into obese adults. Now that is a matter of concern.Taking simple steps such as reducing the amount of added sugars, involving them in physical activities such as running, and sports, and eating nutritious and nonprocessed foods are basic yet intelligent ways for your adolescents to lose weight. Your teens must remember that building a healthy body is not about hitting a certain size or getting to a certain size. Weight management for teens is so much more than that.
There is a huge misconception that being skinny is always good. However, we beg to differ. If your child has less weight than the recommended BMI, that is also a cause of concern. While obesity directly affects the heart, being too skinny could be an indicator of hyperthyroidism, menstrual problems in women, poor immunity, muscle weakness, etc. In both cases, weight management emerges as the focal point of concern. When we are concerned with weight management for teenagers, diet is a major stakeholder. Let’s scroll through a range of things you could inculcate in your child’s diet regime to help them attain their ideal weight while keeping into mind some miscellaneous factors.
Setting Healthy and Realistic Goals
The adolescent years are an emotional and hormonal rollercoaster. Your child may have some idol/icon when it comes to ‘ideal body image’. However, this is where you need to bear caution and approach your child in mindful ways. While they can be highly sensitive to any sort of criticism, they must understand every body type is different. Therefore, instead of entirely focussing on weight gain or weight loss, they should focus on health. Reinforcing positive lifestyle changes according to the requirement can create a positive environment for your teen kids where they feel secure. Don’t let them idealize any unrealistic body type. Converse with them and help them become more acceptive of who they are.
Beware of Binge Eating/ Abnormal Eating Patterns
With their hormones haywire, teens are the peak time when your kid has a high chance of running astray when it comes to diet. Teenagers end up experiencing random food cravings and usually give in to those unhealthy calls. Now, now. No need to go all strict when it comes to diet, but when your kid is under/overweight, you need to keep a watchful eye on any abnormal eating patterns that you notice. From an increase in the consumption of junk food to erratic food cravings, as soon as you see your kid regularly consume any sort of processed foods, try to regulate the portions being consumed. Eating habits can make your child’s case worse, or better.
What to Eat and What to Avoid
There is a wide spectrum of food items that are naturally considered better for overall health because of their nutritional value. Similarly, there are items that one can and should avoid for a healthier living.
If you’re trying to lose weight, avoid deep-fried foods, sweetened beverages, high sugar foods, fad diets, etc. Also, instead of avoiding fat, it’s best to replace unhealthy fats with healthy sources of fats like nuts, avocado, seeds, etc. Diet foods are a strict no-no. They are usually loaded with unhealthy chemicals and artificial sweeteners that can mess up hormones. Choose whole grains, unprocessed and filling foods for your child’s meals and snacks. Fruit bowls are a great way to fight random cravings.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to gain weight, timed consumption of nutrient-rich food items is key. This does not mean that your child is free to munch on unhealthy snacks. Keeping in mind the pointers stated above, the important part is to eat right. Try including fruit juices, shakes, and snacks in your child’s diet regime. Breakfast is an important element in this regime. Eating a banana or an omellete in the morning can be a great source of protein intake. Calorie-dense food broken into mini-meals is one way to feed finicky, choosy teens.
Go, See a Dietician
In the case of weight management for teens, it’s best not to follow hearsay and meet an expert. Teens are an unpredictable time and every teenager is going through physical, emotional, and psychological changes. Therefore, going to a dietician can help your child realize their actual goal without causing any harm.
Along with these, practicing mindful eating habits and not skipping meals can go a long way in making your children healthy adults in the long run. Go ahead and transform your child’s life the best way, now!