Overview
Being an overweight or underweight teenage girl can affect self esteem and adversely affect health. Teenage girls are especially vulnerable to disordered eating such as skipping meals and binging while trying to control their weight. Learning about proper portions and healthy food choices helps a teenage girl gain control of her eating and better manage her weight through adulthood.
Effects of Poor Eating Habits
A teenage girl must take in adequate calories to fuel daily activities and provide nutrition to a growing body. The Centers for Disease Control warn that obese teenagers are more likely to face a lifetime of chronic health conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Being overweight can damage a girl’s social image and trickle into her academic performance. Teenage girls who are underweight also face social stigmatization. If they suffer from an eating disorder like anorexia or bulemia, teenage girls risk nutritional deficiencies that may prevent them from reaching their full height, affect their bone development and impair fertility.
Nutrition
Healthy eating for a teenage girl involves balancing carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Sometimes girls shun fat in order to lose weight, but healthy fats, found in nuts, olive oil and avocados, should make up about 25 to 35 percent of daily calories to help with vitamin absorption, healthy skin and hair and hormone regulation. Avoiding carbohydrates is not an effective way to lose weight, as they provide energy, fiber and B vitamins. A teenage girl, especially one that is active, should strive to obtain about 60 percent of daily calories from healthy carbohydrates like whole grains and fresh produce. Carbohydrates, like whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables, provide energy and nutrition. Adequate calcium and protein intake are also important to a girl’s growing bones and muscles.
Unhealthy Weight Loss
Teaching a teenage girl how to maintain a healthy weight is a gift she can use forever. If a teenager needs to lose weight, doing so gradually is most effective. Losing weight too fast for can cause deficiencies in the necessary nutrients or may trigger a full-blown eating disorder. Girls may have a tendency to skip meals in an effort to lose weight or because they are self-conscious eating in front of other people—this can backfire, leading to poor choices when hunger gets the best of them at later sittings.
Foods to Include
Teenage girls need to eat a good breakfast—like whole wheat toast with peanut butter or whole grain cereal with low-fat milk—as this prevents overeating later in the day. Lunchtime often offers unhealthy options with pizza and fries in the school cafeteria. Pack a lunch if possible, and include foods you like such as yogurt, fruit, turkey sandwiches on whole grain bread, nuts, baked chips and low-sugar granola bars. If you face a lunch out, choose grilled items over fried and try to consume at least one serving of a fruit or vegetable with your meal. For dinner, think of foods you like—even seemingly unhealthy ones—and devise strategies to make them more health-friendly. Bake your own pizza with low-fat cheese on a whole wheat crust or grill flank steak to serve in corn tortillas for healthy tacos.
Strategies
Teenagers may have a harder time refusing fast food and processed foods, so limiting their availability in the home is a first step. Soda, sweets and refined grains offer lots of calories with little nutrition. Learning to skip these in favor of sparkling water, fresh fruits and whole grain snacks can help a teenage girl manage her weight. Although certain foods are not optimal, a healthy diet for a teenage girl includes all foods in moderation.
About this Author
With degrees from Princeton and Columbia University, Andrea Cespedes is also a professionally trained chef and has focused studies in nutrition. With over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry, she coaches cycling and running and teaches pilates and yoga. She is an American Council on Exercise certified personal trainer.