How to handle overweight in adolescence

With the arrival of adolescence, the opinion of parents can become a double-edged sword, and advice can have both the desired effect and the completely opposite in a somewhat unpredictable way . The way in which the adolescent receives and processes the words of his parents in reference to what he should or should not eat, for example, depends to a large extent on his opinion of himself, and, unfortunately, sometimes it is difficult to know true science, what is it?

While obesity or overweight are easy to detect, other disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia are not so easy. To further complicate the situation, the line between the two extremes is very easy to cross and the passage from obesity to bulimia occurs more frequently than we would like. In Guiainfantil.com we give you some useful guidelines for managing overweight in adolescence.

Overweight in adolescence: how to help the children

The overweight teenager begins to be more aware of his body and weight than during childhood, which can tip the balance to several points: Se - Worries and He wants to lose weight with serenity, beginning to take care of his diet and change his habits. Se - He obfuscates in losing weight, he wants to do it at a speed that is not healthy, avoiding eating or doing extreme diets, and may be at risk of crossing the line to eating disorders

such as anorexia or bulimia. Se - Depressed by his physical appearance and takes refuge in himself and in food, increasing the risk of going from being overweight in adolescence to obesity de or changing from one third to eating disorders.

In any case, our job is to try to help the adolescent, offering our son tools and options to change his eating habits and lifestyle in a progressive way. - The example is essential since childhood. If the child grows up in an environment where healthy lifestyle habits prevail, their tendency will be to follow them. However, if at this point this has not been the usual, gradual changes can be incorporated, such as promoting family exercise (walks, bicycles ...), establishing the day of breakfast or healthy dinner (to do it every day little by little) ) or decrease the size of the portions with more fat in favor of other healthier ones.

- Offer balanced meals and not excessively caloric , trying that the dish always contains a good portion of foods that are satiating (tomato, lettuce, fruits with large amount of water, vegetables ...). - Try to keep a schedule so you do not need to snack between meals.

Also, avoid heavy meals and try to make dinner not immediately before bedtime.

- Avoid having juices and soft drinks within reach muy, very popular among teenagers, since their sugar content is very high. On the contrary, water does not make you fat and helps your metabolism to work without problems. In this way the caloric intake is limited enough.