A startling number of 12.5 million children are overweight. This is probably triggered by the sedentary lifestyle of the youth today. Instead of exercising, they spend most of their time in front of the computer and television. Also most of the teens today prefer foods from the fast food restaurants than vegetables and other nutritious meals. With the number of obese teens we have today, parents should find creative ways to encourage them adopt healthy habits. But we have to admit that getting in shape is a big responsibility.

Overweight teens have a heavy burden as they have to cope with the teasing, social isolation, verbal abuse and emotional torture. Anne Fletcher, a registered dietician who also had an obese son named Wes Gilbert, has a passion for finding solutions to help overweight teens. She was able to interview 104 kids to learn what life was like when they were overweight, and what helped them lose the weight and keep it off. The results of her study were published in Weight Loss Confidential: How Teens Lose Weight and Keep it Off and What They Wish Parents Knew.

Parents should keep in mind that their children cannot have a successful pursuit to weight loss alone. They need supportive parents who can create healthy home environments. Once parents succeed at losing weight, their children are more likely to also succeed. But when teens have overweight parents, it would seem a bit difficult for them to also lose weight. Experts also agree that it’s not a good idea for parents to nag to their overweight teens. Instead, they must let their children know that they are willing to help then back off and let them decide when they’re ready. They also advise parent to talk to their kids about the pros and cons of being overweight.

And of course, it is incorrect for parents to teach their children the wrong way of dieting. Usually, teens resort to starvation diets. However, this only leads to weight gain in teen rather than weight reduction. A combination of hunger-cravings may only trigger an episode of binge eating. Or else the lack of weight loss is usually enough to de-motivate the dieter who quits the diet and starts overeating. Repeated attempts to lose weight can only lower the metabolic rate and make it even more difficult to maintain a normal weight.

Another problem of starvation is that weight loss which happens as a result of drastic calorie reduction is highly undesirable. An approximate of 50% of the lost weight is not fat at all but only lean tissue. The fat tissue requires fewer calories to maintain than muscle tissues so the body retains more fat and burns more muscles.

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