Obesity In Teenagers Is A Growing Problem That Can Only Worsen

Obesity in teenagers is a growing problem that has become worse in recent times and teenagers need to do something to control it, fast. What makes matters worse is that obesity in teenagers will lead to their becoming overweight when they reach adulthood unless they take to healthy lifestyles and exercise as well as control their eating habits.

Is Not A Few Extra Pounds Of Weight

Obesity does not mean a few extra pounds, though it portends to gaining weight easily, and requires changes in diet as well as taking exercise. Obesity in teenagers may result when the teenager has more than ten percent extra weight over that what is recommended for that particular height and weight. According to studies conducted on obesity in teenagers, it was found that teenagers aged between ten and thirteen would have an eighty percent chance of becoming obese adults.

Overweight children and teenagers in particular, may not be as affected physically as psychologically with them becoming targets of taunts, ridicule as well as poor treatment meted out to them by other children at school as well as in the community. In addition, it may also result in not only others putting them down, but also their own self-esteem taking a hit. It has been found that a sizeable percentage of overweight kids and teenagers are thought to be clinically depressed.

To control obesity in teenagers, the teenager may need to take a healthy as well as balanced diet, and according to studies; frequent dieting in teenagers may inhibit their growth and may result in long term weight gain as well. Nevertheless, there are weight loss summer camps open for teenagers that have been designed by leading researchers as well as clinicians to maximize the behavioral change over long-term that should help cause substantial and permanent weight loss.

Obesity in teenagers will occur when their total energy intake or calories consumed is greater that the total energy expended, which is the energy the teenagers uses up during physical activity. There are supposedly more than forty different medical or psychological problems that affect nearly every organ in the body, and its treatment should focus on long-term changes to diet as well as exercise, and family support should be forthcoming if the teenager is to avoid dramatic swings in body weight.

It is believed that more than twenty-eight percent of schoolchildren are overweight and in fact, obese, and nearly a fourth of them are at risk of getting diabetes, heart disease, stroke as well as possibly early death. The incidence of obesity in teenagers is around twenty percent in the US. It is clear that obesity in teenagers is a major cause of concern which needs to be addressed as early as possible if any degree of control is to be brought back into the life of affected teenagers.

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