Weight Loss for Tweens and Teens?🍔🍟🍕🍦
~ Maxine, Registered Dietitian One of my clients kindly asked for some nutrition advice regarding her younger teenage son as he wants to lose weight and join her weight loss journey. Everyone needs an individualized approach to their nutritional goals but I wanted to share my general guidelines in case there are other parents here that are unsure on how to go about this. Firstly, I recommend staying away from the concept of "dieting" or calorie counting at the start. It can be very overwhelming for a tween/ younger teen and often ends up having a negative impact on their relationship with food well into adulthood. I would rather focus on making "health" their ultimate goal. Teaching them about macros and how to build a healthy meal instead is a great start. Here are a few healthy eating and lifestyle guidelines to support:
In the US, Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start of the summer season (but this information is great for everyone with a social life!) BBQs, pool parties, camping, road trips, beach days…..so much fun to be had, we hope everyone is blessed with lots of sunshine this weekend and all summer long wherever you might be. At PLT Nutrition, we take a flexible dieting approach and this provides you with, well, flexibility! This is a great weekend to really plan ahead and make good use of your relaxed plan, your flexible ranges or calorie cycling, and enjoy yourself without guilt or stress! If you’re not working with a coach but are working towards some important goals on your own, we hope the tips below are helpful! You CAN come away from a long weekend feeling empowered and confident that a fun time wasn’t a derailment from your goals! I love to get everyone sharing their favorite tips…. If you are road trippin’ with the fam, share your car snack magic! What are you packing and what are your travel stop/convenience store go-to’s?? If you are hitting the beach for the day, what are your favorite sandwiches tucked away in your cooler and what else is in there waiting to get covered in sand? If you are entertaining at home, you are in control of your environment and this is a great opportunity to be on the ‘lean & mean’ side of the grill especially if you are going somewhere that you can’t control the environment another day Fire up the grill and lean towards lean protein, here are a few ideas, the possibilities are endless:
Keep your sides light too and when you are heading to friend’s homes, ALWAYS bring a ‘light side’ as you just know there will tons of mayo laden yummy sides you might not find are in your best interests! Use a light salad dressing you love or make your own using some balsamic, dijon mustard, salt & pepper and a splash of olive oil (or google homemade dressings, there are tons that are SO easy to throw together!)
Check out our website for our blog on Summertime Strategies, and all our blogs related to nutrition, fitness, health & well being!
https://www.pltnutrition.com/our-blog/summertime-strategies A 3min Read
Is +5/-5 grams really the gold standard for tracking? Many people and companies believe in the +5/-5 approach to tracking and it certainly works but at PLT Nutrition we don’t believe it is needed or of any benefit. The approach asks you to be within +5/-5g of your daily macro targets. It’s benefits:
It’s negatives:
Whether you track your daily fish oil, whether you track 3 or 7oz of broccoli, salad leaves, salsa, marinades etc isn’t going to impact your fat loss or general health goals. No one ever became overweight eating these things. Yes they are part of your overall calorie intake; yes, you most likely underestimate the number of calories you eat, but whether you track these items isn’t of consequence. It’s the other parts of your life that are the impactful areas, the parts that should be tracked and controlled. Fat loss comes from reducing your calorie intake and possibly increasing your calories burned, that’s not likely going to come from reducing broccoli and if that’s your approach it’s the wrong approach. Your tracking isn’t designed to be an expression of your complete calorie intake or your metabolism. It’s designed to identify the areas of your diet that can be improved and apply control to. If you do this, you can achieve your goals and track in a much more relaxed and fluid manner. There’s nothing wrong with +/-5 if you enjoy that approach - PLT Nutrition just believes it’s unnecessary... And this why we are THE “Really Flexible Dieting” company 💛 tks Paul |
AuthorI'm Paul Leonard, CEO & founder of PLT Nutrition. Categories
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