Staying Fit and Weight Loss

What can today's teens do to make sure they don't turn into tomorrow's fat adults?

Most of you probably never had a weight problem when you were teenagers. For many women, the weight loss problem develops during pregnancy, and they are never able to get rid of the "baby fat," and then along comes another baby and more "baby fat."

If the truth were told, none of you had a problem with weight until you reached adulthood, but you don't know what happened—what did you do as teenagers that you didn't do when you became an adult? What can today's teens do to make sure they don't turn into tomorrow's fat adults?

In order to understand what happens between the teens and adulthood to cause some people to gain weight, you have to think back to your teens and remember what you did that you don't do now.

• You were always participating in some high-energy activity (running, playing sports, dancing, gymnastics, swimming, roller skating, bicycling).
• You were conscious of what you were eating because you didn’t' want to get fat. If you over ate, you immediately began exercising to work it off.
• You knew the importance of drinking water and made sure to drink at least eight glasses a day.

The difference between the teens and adulthood is that not everyone continued following the same routine they had been following. Many people think because they were able to eat everything they wanted as teenagers, they will be able to do the same thing as they enter into adulthood. For many people that is true, but for others the transition into adulthood comes with a slowdown in the metabolic balance, thus making it easier to maintain the same weight you did as a teenager.

In order to prevent a metabolic slowdown when you enter adulthood, you have to continue the same regime you did as a teenager. That doesn't mean you have to perform all of the same kinds of activities, but you need to have a level of activity that is consistent with the amount of calories you consume. In order to maintain your weight, you must burn calories consistent with the number of calories you consume. If your level of activity is light, you must consume fewer calories than you would if you were very active or you will gain weight.

In order to stay fit for life, you can't change your eating habits once you become an adult. If you ate healthy as a teenager, you have to continue doing so. If you were just lucky, you may need to adjust the way you eat as you become older. That means learning to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, lean meat, and low carbohydrates and fat.

Exercise is always important, so you want to develop a routine that consists of a combination of resistance and aerobic exercises. The aerobic exercises (running, walking, cycling, swimming) are the ones that boost your metabolism so that your burn calories quickly, and although the resistance exercises don't speed the metabolism, they do create lean muscle mass, and lean muscle mass burns calories quicker than fat. This is the key to enjoying some "goodies" when you want or eating all you want at a barbeque or other part—additional exercise to burn off more calories.

Many adults get out of the habit of drinking water, but this is an essential element in not only losing weight, but also maintaining it. When your water is not replaced daily, you not only run the risk of illness, but you may also develop edema, usually in your feet and legs.

Your body needs fresh water to flush out toxins, and if you don't replace the water, the body will use old water to flush out the toxins, which opens you to the possibility of infection. It's essential no matter what your age that you drink plenty of water, eat healthy foods, and exercise regularly if you want to stay healthy and fit for life.

Fiona Garrington

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