Healthy Weight 
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HOW DO I LOSE WEIGHT?

Many kids ask, "How do I lose weight?"  The answer really is eating in moderation.  But if it is that simple, why do kids struggle so much?  What you eat is a habit.  It can be a lifelong habit.  You may have started overeating when you were just an infant.  Parents frequently use food as a way to soothe an infant ("Give her a bottle if she cries!").  Many parents continue to use food to comfort a child, or as rewards.  For example, if a child gets bullied at school, "Here's an ice cream cone to make you feel better.",  or  "If you are good, I will buy you a doughnut!"  Parents can easily overdo this, and the child becomes hooked on being comforted and rewarded by rich food.  Or kids themselves may seek comfort in food at any age and become hooked.  The amount you eat is also a habit.  If you typically receive large portion sizes in your family, as well as second or third helpings, then that becomes a habit as well.  Breaking a lifelong habit takes time and real determination, but it can be done, little by little.

A poll on our site shows that overweight kids eat for reasons other than hunger, such as for entertainment, and to comfort themselves from stress, depression, loneliness, rejection, and boredom. 

Age 13, female, 5'7", 223 lb.: "Everyone I know practically soothes emotions with food!"

If you find comfort in food, losing weight can be particularly hard.  You reach for the fridge or a bag of chips every time you have a bad day, or you are bored, or you are just depressed or stressed out for no real reason.  Some of us are stressed, depressed, or bored a lot of the time, so if pleasurable food is in front of us we typically eat it, not because we are hungry, but to make ourselves feel better emotionally.  This is what is called being a comfort eater or emotional eater.  Food companies are very aware that pleasurable food is comforting, and they advertise this and use slogans.  Fast food companies make sure that their food tastes great, so that it is comforting (numbs bad feelings).  In the short video clip at right a fast food magazine editor says, "...a lot of fast food's success is about the  comfort food level of it."  Fast food places have even been described as, "Drive through pain treatment".  Fast food drive-through windows are now open 24 hours a day, just like an ER. 

When we are particularly unhappy, we also may binge on food (eat a whole lot) to comfort ourselves, and then feel guilty afterwards.  Keeping a food-feeling diary can help.  Write down what you feel before, during, and after you eat something.

We eat to comfort ourselves until our stomach becomes overfull (stuffed) and we feel uncomfortable.  That is why filling up on water before eating and eating foods high in fiber helps.  Fiber fills your stomach up but does not make you gain weight.  Foods high in fiber include whole grain breads and cereals, fruits, and vegetables.  Stomach stapling surgery makes the stomach very small, so that the uncomfortable stuffed feeling occurs after eating only small amounts of food, thus resulting in weight loss.  But stomach stapling surgery has high risks.

Pleasurable food does comfort the pains of life, but only briefly.  Once the food is gone, the pains of life come back.  And you get into a vicious circle of feeling worse about yourself, and more rejection, so you overeat more for comfort, gain more weight, and so on...

From Brianna, Age 14 - 5/2/07 - Ht. 5'6", Start: 171 lb, Current: 171 lb, Goal: 120 lb - This is my first time here having to to write my wieght was very hard for I have very felt self confident until now I don't even like shopping any more. Every time I'm stressed I eat and my weight is making me stressed...

In order to lose weight and keep it off, you must break this vicious circle by substituting other comforting things for the comfort that food gives you (see below).

When kids and teens overeat and become overweight, they do not overeat non-fattening foods like fruits and vegetables or even dry toast... they overeat pleasurable high-fat, high-sugar foods like soda pop, ice cream, pizza, doughnuts, candy, etc. ("junk food").   It is the pleasure of eating that they are hooked on.  Food can actually be used like a drug to prevent oneself from ever feeling bad, just like a drug addiction.  Even though eating such foods does make you feel better briefly, it has the bad side effect that you become overweight, which can cause serious health problems and hurts your self-esteem.

Age 14, female, 5’, 178 lb.: “its so hard cuz its like an addiction. . i mean its not like crack or anything but its almost as hard to quit and it can kill u just as sure, slowly. ;.that's wat i think about when i want junk food or fast food. ”

All of us like the taste of rich food, and we may over-indulge at times.  But if you find yourself unable to resist rich food, even when you know it is causing you to be overweight, then you are likely using food to keep yourself from feeling unhappy or stressed.  You eat even when you know that you are not hungry, you feel guilty afterwards, and you feel that you can not control it.  

When you try to change a lifelong habit of eating for comfort, you will feel "antsy", nervous, and irritable, and have intense cravings for a certain period of time, although usually only about 2 weeks, until your body gets used to being off the large amounts of rich food.  It is similar to coming off a drug, which is called "withdrawal" or "detox", but it will get better.

From randi, Age 15 - Ht. 5'10", Start: 211 lb, Current: 209 lb, Goal: 150 lb - just to tell everyone if u can have enough self control and stay off the sugar for two weeks you stop craving sugar completly and some sugar free sweets that you might not have liked before taste really good

Taking it in baby steps is the way that works for most people.  Pick one thing you want to cut out, like soda, junk food, fast food, second helpings, or large portions.  Then stop the thing you picked.  Stop drinking soda or stop eating candy, TOTALLY.  Expect to feel antsy and have bad cravings for about two weeks, which will then disappear.  Then pick something else to cut out.  You will feel antsy and have cravings each time you cut something out, but it will pass in a week or two.  If you are able to cut out just a few junk foods, you will start to lose weight.  But, of course, you must substitute a distracting activity or a healthy food like fruit and not another junk food, or you will gain the weight back.

A poll on this site shows that when kids and teens ask "How do I lose weight?", they usually know that they have to eat less and exercise more.  What they are really asking is, "How do I cut down on pleasurable food, so I don't lose the comfort, and how do I get through the antsy feelings and cravings of withdrawal?"

Make a plan, so that you will have distracting things to do when you feel antsy, like take a walk with your dog or a friend, ride your bike, work on a hobby, shoot basketball, go dancing,  take a course, decorate your room, or call a friend.  Or just having sweet apples or baby carrots in the fridge to eat or flavored ice water can relieve the cravings.  Squeezing your hands really tight together also helps you get through cravings and the antsy feelings. 

From anne, Age 16 - 8/22/03 - IP#: 216.66.108.xxx   - i read the blubberbuster advice for cravings and it said to hold your hands together. i was like yeah right! that is not going to work for me! but last night i watched my boyfriend eat a reeses sunday and i didn't have a single bite. as simple as it sounds- it works, hey- if you don't have your hands free then you won't grab and eat stuff.

From JANEAL, Age 15 - 10/17/05 - IP#: 12.203.162.xxx - I AM THE SAM WAY MY DOCTOR GAVE ME THE FUNNIEST TIP EVER IT WORKS SQUEEZE UR HANDS TOGETHER 10 TIMES WATCH IT WORKS

Cutting out just one soda a day, for example, is a way to start your plan.  Eating only half a desert, and putting the other half away for tomorrow, is another. 

From anne, Age 16 - 9/24/03 - IP#: 216.66.108.xxx  - i know you're not going to take this seriously- but just squeeze your hands together like this website says after you've already had half of your regular meal and when you're not suppose to eat so your hands aren't free and think of something else...