Many parents are quick to forget what life is like as a teenager.  There are a number of academic and social pressures to deal with as well as some fairly major changes in hormone levels taking place.  Toss in the facts that the bodies of teenagers grow at the fastest rate that they have since birth and that critical decision making and problem solving abilities are being developed, and you remember how much a teenager has on his or her plate every day.  With so much going on and a society that worships physical fitness and beauty and you can see why it is often difficult for kids and teens to learn how to make good decisions when it comes to eating and exercising and how specialized the skill sets are of individuals that operate successful weight loss camps.

Teenagers are especially succeptable to getting too caught up in issues of personal image.  As a result, many teenagers these days regularly resort to restrictive diets and strive to maintain a “perfect” body.  We’re all aware that in a few years they will more than likey give up their pursuit for a perfect body as there is not really such a thing, yet more and more teens each year turn to dieting as a short term way to obtain a desired look.  (NOTE:  by “dieting” I am referring to restrictive ‘diets’ that should not be confused with healthy eating habits or a healthy ‘diet.’)

There are a number of reasons that strict diets typically fail in the short term and rarely, if ever, work in the long term for teenagers.  Even children that are overweight will not achieve long-term success from a restrictive diet.  Here’s why:

First, making abrupt changes to food intake by restricting how much food is eaten will disrupt a child’s energy balance and their natural ability to regulate food intake, leading to problems down the road.

Second, studies show that a majority of overweight adults who used dieting as their only weight control method in their teenage years gained that weight back.

Instead of restrictive dieting, kids and teens will be much more successful by eating healthy diets and exercising regularly

Third, many “hot” diets that teens are drawn to are quick weight loss diets that limit the intake of certain food groups, nutrients, etc.  For a growing body, these restictions can be bad and can stunt growth or cause imbalances in their development which can affect their performance in school or other areas of life.  Bigger problems can develop later as a result.

Finally, some teenagers suffer from more serious conditions (e.g. depression) and use their weight issues and dieting as a means to hide or supress the true issues that the child feels they cannot control.  Since the true problem is never addressed with a diet, it never goes away and continues to cause problems for the child later in life.

For these reasons, parents should be wary if/when their child tells them they want to go on a diet.  The bottom line is that restrictive diets as a means to lose weight in teenagers are never worth it.  Their chances for short term success are slim and it is more likely that they are actually doing something that is worse for their body.

If the child needs to lose weight, parents should consider a weight loss program similar to those used at teen weight loss camps where healthy eating is combined with exercise via fun activities.  These fitness camps remove kids and teens from their regular lives and free them from having to deal with the extra pressures that teenagers struggle with.  At the weight loss camp, kids are able to focus on learning healthy living habits while not having to worry about everything else that they struggle with at home.  Once the good habits are developed at camp, they return home where the new habits become a part of their daily lives.