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Obesity: The pressure to eat and why we are getting fatter
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For many teenage girls Reese Witherspoon, Courtney Cox, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jennifer Love Hewitt are role models. They have super sized success, and they’re also super thin. Probably, in your Mom’s generation, Twiggy was the big name skinny. What doesn’t seem to fit is that while female role models are getting thinner, American teenagers are gaining weight. What’s going on?
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There’s too much eating on the run, grabbing the high calorie, high fat ‘fast foods’ warn researchers studying the serious problem of obesity. Teens, in particular, have disorganized eating patterns; they rarely sit down with the family to eat regular, balanced meals. Instead they go for long periods of time without eating, or they just grab a coke or some ‘junk food’ snack. By the time these adolescents do eat, they are so starved that they overeat. Teenagers are eating the wrong foods, at the wrong times and in the wrong amounts. In addition to that, they are not getting enough exercise to burn off all the extra calories. The result? They’re adding on pound after unwanted pound.
It’s estimated that fourteen percent (14%) of all adolescents are obese…not just fat, but obese. If you are 50 to 100 pounds heavier than your ideal weight (based on body type), you would be included in this 14 %. That’s the bad news. The good news is you can do something to PREVENT excess weight gain before it gets to be a serious health problem.
For starters:
- Pay attention to what you eat, how much you eat, and when you eat it. If you have time, write down, at the end of the day the food you’ve had. How much of it was ‘junk food’, high in calories, high in fats, high in weight gain? BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF. To look better and feel better, wouldn’t it be worth giving up this junk stuff?
- Make sure you get as much exercise as you can. If the distance is under three miles, try walking to school, a friend’s house, or to shop rather than having the only exercise you get be jumping into the car. Going regularly to the gym, or biking is another idea.
- Concentrate on trying to eat several small meals each day rather than 2 or 3 huge ones.
- Get advice from a doctor, a clinic, or the resources on this page if you are having trouble controlling your appetite or your weight gain.
Remember…overeating and under-exercising are only two of the reasons for unhealthy weight gain. Family history of obesity, stressful events, emotional issues and certain medications may also be at fault.
More on Obesity
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