It’s important for teens to lose weight in a healthy way. Today’s society is very image-obsessed, and everyone is subject to countless media images of sculpted sportspeople, size zero celebs and other specimens of supposedly ‘ideal’ physical beauty. Given all this, it’s no surprise that many people aren’t happy with how they look, and this is especially true with teenagers. Many feel insecure and self-conscious at this time of life anyway, and some even develop low self-esteem and in some cases, disordered eating habits.

A lot of the teenagers who want to slim down don’t actually need to lose weight at all, but are trying to conform to the unrealistic media stereotypes. If that is true of your teenager, it's especially vital to try to reassure them that they’re perfectly loveable and attractive just as they are.

However, if a teen does need to lose weight, it is a good idea to do so, or they may face long term health problems as well as an immediate reduction in quality of life. But they should be discouraged from using crash diets and other unhealthy means; teens who want to slim down should do so in a balanced, sensible manner. This means making long term changes in the eating habits that caused them to gain weight to start with. This can be difficult, since a lot of teens aren’t interested in eating healthily, and may also be subject to peer pressure from junk food-eating friends.

So, in order to move past such obstacles, your teen must have strong motivation to change their habits. You can help by:

• Ensuring that they have top quality information about how to eat for healthy, permanent weight loss

• Making them aware of the dangers connected with unbalanced diets, which can damage their health, and don’t usually work for long term fat loss anyway

• Ensuring that they know about the health risks associated with meal replacements, diet pills, crash diets, junk foods, binging and purging, and the use of appetite suppressants and other drugs

• Encouraging them to do some form of exercise that they enjoy regularly

• Providing a supportive environment at home

• It'll also help a lot if the people they live with eat well, and don’t sabotage the teenager's efforts by filling the house with tempting junk foods

Losing fat is a challenge for people of all ages, and especially so for teenagers, but there are healthy, sensible ways for teens to lose weight, and with the right support they can manage it without falling victim to fad diets or body image problems.