By Judy Davie
**”I’m a 15 (turning 16) year old teenage girl with a height of 169cm and I currently weigh 85kg but I’ve always had a fairly solid build. I want to lose the excess weight fast, how can I do this without using weight loss tablets, shakes or drinks?”
— Jenny**
Oh dear, this is such a hard subject to deal with, particularly at your age when the future is only as far away as next week.
Quick weight loss is easy to achieve by eating very little and moving around a lot more than you do now, but don’t think for a second that I’m going to suggest you do that. The problem with quick weight loss is that it almost always results in quick weight gain, often gaining more weight than the amount originally lost.
If you want to be slim for the rest of your teenage years and into your twenties and thirties you have to change your eating habits to include foods you’ll want to eat forever.
If you start tomorrow by changing what you eat and increase the level of physical activity you can be one kilogram lighter at the end of the week. Carry on into week two and you may be able to knock off another one kilogram. A great way to understand the significance of this loss is to find something that weighs two kilos — it’s pretty heavy. You’re certain to notice the difference in your energy levels even after week two.
Another reason to take it slow and steady is that you said you have always had a fairly solid build. Given that, you no doubt think of yourself as large. The psychological impact of that is significant. Until you see yourself as slim — something that can only happen with time, you will always steer yourself back to being big. It’s complex, but trust me, it happens.
Another reason why I’m sounding like your mother is that at your age your body is still developing and growing and while that may not be apparent on the outside, on the inside body organs and systems are still developing and maturing. You must ensure you give them everything they need so you can enjoy a healthy and happy life well into old age.
In saying that you have a perfect opportunity to lose weight and nourish your body into healthy adulthood.
Start by working out how much time you can spend exercising each week and try where possible to do something fast and physical every day or at least six days a week.
Think about how many white carbohydrates, such as white bread, biscuits, chips, cakes, muffins and pastries you eat and try to cut them out and replace them with wholegrain bread, grainy crackers, brown pasta and brown rice. The quickest way to lose weight is to try and cut out all cakes, biscuits, muffins and pastries, but if you love them you may need to include the occasional one as a treat.
Fat has more energy per gram than carbohydrate and protein so where possible switch to low fat products — low fat or skimmed milk, reduced fat cheese and yoghurt are better and try to cut out cream. If your Mum cooks meals at home ask her to substitute these lower fat dairy options for you.
Chocolate, butter, many desserts, fast foods (or rather fat foods) are all demons when it comes to weight.
Protein is the key to growth and a key to feeling full on an energy restricted diet. Make sure you include protein in every meal such as eggs for breakfast or low fat yoghurt, chicken or canned fish for lunch and fish or red meat with dinner.
Of all foods, vegetables are the least energy dense. With the exception of potatoes (especially when they’re fried in fat) you can enjoy heaps of veggies with every meal — for weight loss and great health. Fruit is a great sweet snack so do try to replace cakes and biscuits with fruit instead.
An easy meal plan can be found on the Food Coach site but I’ll give you a rough idea of what would be an effective day’s intake for weight loss:
Breakfast
2 Weetbix with ½ cup skimmed milk
1 boiled egg with 1 slice wholegrain toast and a smear of butter
Morning Tea
Apple
Lunch
Grain bread roll with 3 slices avocado, tomato, sprouts, lettuce, beetroot and tuna
Mandarin or orange
Afternoon tea 1 tbsp hummus
1 carrot (raw)
2 celery sticks
10 almonds
Dinner
½ cup brown pasta
120 g cooked chicken breast
½ cup pasta sauce
20 green beans
½ cup boiled pumpkin
120 grams low fat natural yoghurt
½ cup stewed apple (no added sugar)
Pay attention to the portion control as overeating is often the reason why people gain weight.
And finally on the subject of drinks — one of the biggest factors causing excess weight, especially in teenagers, is soft drinks. Artificially sweetened drinks are known to increase the appetite — the consequence is you eat more. Sugar sweetened drinks contain the equivalent of around 10 teaspoons of sugar — and that’s a lot when you equate it into kilojoules.
Adding a can of coke to the daily intake above adds close to 10 percent extra kilojoules so you can soon see the benefits of cutting it out altogether.
Good luck!
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