Weight Loss Tips for Teenage Girls

Looking back, I realize that had I known of several simple ways to tweak my diet (eating habits), I could have been quite lean. As a teen, I thought I knew all there was to know about dieting and weight loss, too. Looking back, I realize I didn't know all that much.

* Increase daily intake of fruit. This will help keep you satiated.

* Don't "blow your diet" because you overate at lunch. If you pigged out at lunch, let that be, let it go, and you start all over again when school is out: Snack on something healthy.

* Eat breakfast, but make it nutritious (fruit, yogurt, whole grain cereal, scrambled eggs with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, etc.). A meal replacement drink will also work, and there are many of these on the market.

Stay away from the more commercial ones and stick to ones sold at health food stores or Whole Foods.

* Relative to exercise, the best time to eat is within 30 minutes of finishing exercise, when your body's calorie-burn-rate is at its highest.

* Never punish yourself or feel bad about yourself when you "slip up" on your diet. If you've been dreaming about a pancake breakfast for weeks, then go ahead and have a pancake breakfast.

Figure out ahead of time how much to prepare so that you're not left with extra batter which will tempt you to overeat.

* Make changes in your diet that you can stick with long-term. Avoid any changes that are extreme or very difficult to stick to; this is asking for trouble. In other words, if you absolutely love ice cream, it's totally unrealistic to plan on avoiding ice cream for the rest of your life.

Allow yourself to have a reasonable portion of ice cream every so often. Trust me when I say this: People who have lost weight and kept it off allow themselves to occasionally indulge.

* Have a green salad every day, no matter what else you have eaten.

* If you and your friends are planning on going somewhere where you'll be very tempted to over-indulge, then plan on it. Trying to fight it will make you miserable. But do not starve yourself the day before or even that day, in an attempt to create room for all the calories you anticipate.

Eat as you normally would, because this way, you'll have less room to over-indulge.

* Never take up smoking, thinking it will subdue your appetite. This might happen, but along with it will come awful breath, stained teeth, foul-smelling hair, clothes and skin that stink like an ashtray...give yourself some credit and believe that you can lose weight without resorting to a stinking,

* Avoid diet sodas and other diet drinks like the plague. Artificial sweeteners may increase appetite, plus cause other side effects (like headaches) that you may not even make the connection to.