Diet and Exercise for Teenagers

Obesity among American teenagers has become a serious problem, and it did not appear overnight. It keeps climbing as new forms of entertainment compete for a teen's attention. Videogames, TIVO, and Facebook all pull in one direction, while attitudes toward exercise have drifted the other way. So what happened to this generation? Part of the answer is simple inactivity. The rest is food.

Most teens eat far more junk than anything nutritious. A more precise way to put it: they rarely hit the right balance of carbohydrates, proteins, fruits, and vegetables. Parents aren't blameless here either, though it's usually not for lack of caring. Busy schedules leave little room to cook a real meal, and when a kid is left to feed himself, a bag of something salty will beat a head of broccoli every time. It tastes better, it's within reach, and nobody is standing there saying no.

The habits worth building start young. If you can steer a child toward good eating before age 12, you cut down on the bad patterns that otherwise harden over time. That early window matters, because kids who learn to eat well tend to carry those choices into adulthood. There's a social payoff too. Teenagers care enormously about how they look, and good nutrition spares them one of the harshest experiences of adolescence, the weight of obesity on top of everything else they're already navigating.

Adolescence rearranges the body. Girls begin developing breasts, boys start growing facial hair, weight shifts, and for a while nothing feels settled. A teen who is eating well can move through that stretch without the added burden of a body image crisis, and focus instead on the ordinary difficulties of growing up.

Social media deserves part of the blame for how confused teens feel about their appearance. An adolescent brain is still wiring up its basic cognitive machinery, still forming a sense of identity and character, and it's unusually open to influence. Magazines and feeds push a narrow idea of what counts as attractive: skinny models, men with six-packs. Girls tend to take the heavier hit from this. As teens start noticing each other, the pressure to match what the screen calls beautiful or handsome gets tangled up with self-worth, and that pressure has fed anorexia, depression, and in the worst cases suicide. Some teenagers go looking for extreme fixes, like the so-called Soup Diet, which can push a growing body straight into malnourishment.

A teenage body actually needs more fuel than an adult's. Teenage boys require roughly 3,200 calories a day and girls about 2,400 (Russo 2015). There are solid places to learn the details. WebMD has reliable rundowns of teen-appropriate diets, and a basic search will turn up plenty more. Even Atkins and Weight Watchers have adapted their programs for younger bodies.

Watch out for fads. The warning signs are easy to spot: any plan promising dramatic weight loss in 30 days, or one that cuts out or severely limits a whole food group. Talk to a doctor before committing a teenager to anything. My own suggestion runs toward a diabetic diet, and I say that even for households where no one has diabetes. Think of it as getting ahead of the problem. Kids absorb everything, eating habits included, and they imitate what their parents do at the table. Obesity is also one of the leading drivers of diabetes in both teens and adults. A diabetic diet heads that off, teaches portion control for the whole family, and lowers the odds of high blood pressure and vision loss down the line.

Then there's movement. Starting to exercise doesn't require hauling everyone off to a gym. A brisk walk after dinner counts. Push teens toward sports at school or in the community, since plenty of towns run youth baseball and basketball leagues. Belonging to a team does something beyond burning calories; it tends to lift a teenager's self-esteem. Family support matters here too, because kids are far likelier to stay active when the people around them are active.

The body changes of adolescence can tip into dangerous eating behavior, and social media will keep selling skinny as the definition of pretty. Parents are the counterweight. Helping a teenager build a healthy self-image and sensible eating choices falls to you.

- Heather Browning, MBA, BA

References: Burso, Jessica. (n.d.) How Many Calories Should an Average Teenager Eat Per Day? Retrieved March 2, 2015.