Being a teenage girl is not easy. This is a challenging time when the body has many physical and emotional changes. The pressure from peers is sky-high, so having a strong self-esteem is key. Being a teenage girl, you want to be confident and feel good about yourself. If you are a girl in your teens who has some weight and fat that you would like to shed, then read on and learn how you can lose weight fast as a teenage girl and do so safely and effectively. You’ll trim down fast, feel multiple times better, be healthier, be proud of accomplishing optimal health and build up a strong self-esteem.
Essential: Eat More Often
This one probably seems counter-intuitive but trust me, if you want to lose fat, you should eat more often. Eating meals more often will allow you to:
- Eat moderate-portioned meals but be satiated
- Keep your metabolism on fire
- Eat healthier foods with a higher likelihood of success
- Keep insulin stable
All the above lead to rapid fat loss. A typical diet for a teenage girl may be to skip breakfast, eat fast food for lunch and then have dinner and some snacks. Maybe throw in a few sugary sodas for energy. Well, for some teenage girls, this doesn’t seem to affect them with any fat gain. Unfortunately, not all teenage girls have a super-fast metabolism. By eating sparingly and junk when you do, you will ensure that your metabolism and hormones are NOT at an optimal level for fat loss. By eating more often and picking foods that are healthier (we’ll cover that later), you will feed your body with lots of much needed nutrients and put your body in a mode for optimal weight control (and fat loss). When your insulin is kept at a stable level (versus lots of heavy spiking with high sugar, low nutrition foods), you are much, much less susceptible to store fat and instead, burn it off.
Tip: Invest in a travel cooler with a shoulder strap. You can take it with you like a backpack and you can pack it with healthy foods and eat smartly throughout the day at school.
Tip: If you are used to only one decent meal a day, start off slowly. Add a meal and adjust for a few weeks. Then add another meal and adjust for a few more weeks. Get to a point where you are eating five or six healthy meals (ever two to three hours) each day.
Essential: Make Wise Food Choices
Making wise food choices is probably one of the best ways for a teenage girl to lose weight fast. It is actually one of best ways for anybody. Now that doesn’t mean, that you can’t eat some of your favorite foods like pizza, ice cream and donuts but it should be done in moderation. Losing weight simply comes down to the difference between calories in (what you eat each day) versus calories out (how much energy you expend each day). If more calories are coming in versus what you burn, then you store that excess as fat and gain weight.
NOTE: This also assumes you have no thyroid or major hormone condition. If you are a teenage girl who is obese, it is worth having a physical with your doctor if you suspect this is the case. Especially if you’ve had a large weight gain in a short amount of time with no major diet changes.
Assuming your hormone levels and thyroid are fine, then what do wise food choices look like? I tend to shy away from junk foods and processed foods at least 90 percent of the time. These are foods that are high in calories but low in nutrition. I’ll only indulge in these things about 10 percent of the time. Maybe on the weekends or on special nights out with friends. As a teenage girl, who wants to shed unwanted weight quickly, you want to make smart food choices. Let’s look at a few examples of each:
Smart Proteins (muscle builder/maintainer)
Boneless, skin-less chicken breasts
Low-fat dairy (yogurt, cottage cheese, 1% or skim milk, low-cheese)
Fish (baked or boiled and NOT fried)
Lean Turkey and lean red meat
Eggs
Smart Carbohydrates (super energy source)
Fruit (apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, pears, grapefruit and blueberries are examples)
Vegetables (sweet potatoes/yams, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, and carrots are examples)
Beans, peas, lentils
Low-fat popcorn
Whole wheat pasta
Smart Fats (super hormone balancer, health optimizer and fat shedder)
Oils such as Canola, olive and flaxseed
Seeds
Nuts
Cold-water Fish
Avocados
The last one (Smart Fats) might throw your teenage mind for a loop but it is true, there are good fats and having fat in our diet is essential and that’s the bottom line. Fat allows our cells and nervous system to properly function. Fat is also necessary for absorbing certain vitamins. Fats will also keep our hormones in balance and our hair and skin healthy. Fats do need to be in eaten in moderation, though. Keep intake to about 30 percent of daily calories. So protein intake would roughly be 30%, fat 30% and carbohydrates the last 40%.
Essential: Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff But Do Sweat
As a teenager, unless you are active in sports, you probably find yourself sitting a lot because you are in school most of the time or doing homework. It is important that you set aside time in your-ultra busy teen schedules to exercise. Being a fit teen should only take about 30 to 45 minutes of your time each day. To keep things fun and interesting, here are some tips:
- Exercise with a friend (makes the time fly by and highly motivating)
- Lift weights (no worries about getting bulky, only lean and strong)
- Play sports (for fun or as a school extra-curricular)
- Walk or ride your bike to/from school
- Join a running club
As a teen, I loved playing school sports. It was a great way to socialize and meet new people, get fit and it looks great on a school resume when preparing for college. I also found that I was able to eat a lot more because the calories I burned while playing sports kept my metabolism in overdrive. Probably my second favorite form of exercise as a teenager was lifting weights. As a teen girl, keeping excess weight off is a primary concern but not at the expense of putting on bulky muscle. Unfortunately, this causes many teenage girls to shy away from lifting weights. To set the record straight, a teenage girl can lift weights and they will get:
- Stronger
- Leaner
- More flexible
- Shed Fat and excess weight
- Kick your metabolism up several notches (burn more calories!)
It is nearly impossible for teenage girls, or any woman for that matter, to put on loads of muscle when lifting weights because they lack testosterone. When you look at any bodybuilding magazines with huge, muscular women in them, remember one thing:
They are on steroids and have increased their levels of testosterone!
So, teenage girls, don’t be afraid to lift weights!
There isn’t any magic when it comes losing weight fast as a teenage girl. It isn’t complicated though. If you follow the essentials that were talked about in this article, you will be sure to lose weight quickly and you’ll be amazed at how your confidence will sky-rocket and how others around you will take notice at the amazing new you!