Is there an easy way to lose weight? Can heavy teens get a trim figure?
Well, millions have done it, so the answer is clearly yes. Provided there is no medical reason that is causing you to be overweight, all you have to do is remember two points, then decide to fix them for as long as you want to lose weight.
1. What goes in, spreads you out.
2. Cut down on eating fat, and you'll stop getting fat.
What does this mean?
Let's look at memory verse number 1: “What goes in, spreads you out.”
God designed your body to work on a simple principle: You need food to stay alive. If you don't eat, you will die. The reverse also is true. If you eat more than your body needs, the extra food turns into body fat and you become overweight.
Sports champions and athletic people can eat huge amounts of food without becoming overweight. This is because the exercise they do burns up the food before it turns into extra body fat. If you exercise or are physically active, it will stop you from getting too big. If you are not physically active, and eat more food than your body needs, it will store in your body as fat and make your body spread out.
Fats cause fat
Memory verse number 2 says: “Cut down on eating fat, and you'll stop getting fat.”
Many teens have no idea that some foods make people fat and other foods make people thin. And you can be sure that if you are overweight you are eating too many of the fat-causing foods.
Foods with saturated fats in them are the problem foods for overweight teens. If you eat a lot of these, your body wants more of them, so you put on weight. These foods include those fried or cooked in fat and oil, such as fried chicken, burgers, french fries, potato chips, fatty meat … and foods that have a high fat and sugar content, such as cakes, chocolates, butter, cream, peanut butter, pies, cookies, and sweet dessert-type foods.
Foods that make you thin
Sometimes the problem is more in the way people cook food than in the food itself. Natural fish or chicken grilled without crumbed coating or batter is much better than crumbed or battered fish and chicken cooked in fat or oil. Boiled rice and steamed rice are fine, but fried rice may be a problem for overweight teens.
People who seem naturally thin usually eat foods that are naturally better for them. Fruits, vegetables, rice, and foods with a low fat content help your health and keep the weight off. Check the ingredients of foods. Look on labels for the fat content of foods until you get an idea of what has heaps of fat in it and what doesn't. Stick to the low-fat foods and brands that have the lowest fat!
Nutritionists advise that in a whole day you shouldn't eat food that will total more than 30 grams, or 10 ounces, of fat. That means that at each meal, don't eat foods with a total of more than 10 grams (3.3 ounces) of fat if you have three meals each day. And watch those between-meal snacks: One pack of potato chips or buttered popcorn may have enough fat for two or three days of your total fats. So avoid them if you plan to eat in the next few days.
Look at labels
Train yourself to look at labels to see how much fat is in foods. Get away from high-fat, high-sugar, foods. Stick to less than 30 grams (10 ounces) of fat a day. This is not hard. If you have a low-fat breakfast of low-fat cereal and low-fat milk, and perhaps a piece of fruit, you may be under your fat allowance for that meal, so you will lose weight faster.
Don't have breakfasts that include fatty bacon, sausages, fried hash browns, and such, unless you are doing a lot of sport or exercise. These are bad news for anyone who is overweight.
If you have been eating the wrong types of foods, your body may think that fruit and vegetables and low-fat foods don't taste as good. But this is because you have trained your tastebuds the wrong way. You can train them the right way. Keep eating low-fat foods and you will find them a lot tastier. It's just a matter of getting your tastebuds used to a lower fat and lower sugar diet.
Don't forget to exercise!
Exercise. Instead of sitting around watching TV or playing computer games, get out and do some physical activity. Play outdoor games, ride a bike, go skating, take swimming lessons, climb a mountain, go walking, play sport, time yourself running and try to get faster each day, or do anything active that will burn up that fat.
To get some exercise, overweight teen twins Tyler and Melanie stopped playing computer games every afternoon and started working around the house to keep them active. Their parents almost died of shock when the twins started washing the family car, mowing the lawn, washing the dog, tidying up the garden and their rooms every day. Their parents could never previously get them to do this stuff.
But it helped them lose weight, and made them more energetic (it got them closer to their parents too). You will feel a lot better for it too, and you will look better.
