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It may seem like many of the kids at school talk about the latest popular diet and weight loss plans. These fad diets usually restrict your food choices and might require special foods, pills, or supplements, too. In return, the promise of a quick and easy way to lose weight probably sounds good. But, a fad diet will always go out of style.
"A lot of teens try every diet out there and feel like failures when they don’t work," says Linda Schander, LRD, CDE, outpatient dietitian with Sanford Health Eating Disorders Institute, Fargo, N.D. That’s because fad diets are too good to be true.
Like other teens, you may jump from 1 fad diet to another, and another, hoping you'll find the right weight loss diet plan. But, you may not even need to lose weight.
For many overweight teens, the first step is to simply hold your current weight. If you’re still growing, as you get taller your weight will spread out and that will lower your BMI (body mass index), which is a measure of your body fat. Increasing your activity, choosing healthy foods, and limiting your portion sizes will help you stop gaining more weight. And that alone could be enough.
In fact, newer science shows the whole concept of "dieting" doesn’t really work for anyone to lose weight or even stay at a healthy weight. Fad diets, at best, offer a temporary fix. Almost everyone who goes on a fad diet gains back every pound they lose -- and sometimes more.
