The following was posted on the Weight Loss Help For Kids and Teens Blog on 23rd February 2010.
Counting calories has become a very popular weight loss tool. With sites like Fit Day and Calorie King it literally takes a few minutes to log your food and find out how many calories you have eaten
And calorie counting can work. Ultimately weight loss will only occur if you burn more calories than you eat, and counting your calories is a good way to go about this.
But kids and teenagers should not count calories and there are a few reasons for this statement.
- It is time consuming. While logging the food is quick, measuring it all out is not. Teenagers have school, homework and a range of other fun stuff to be doing instead of counting calories.
- Stress. It can be stressful counting calories. If you go over your limit you may feel guilty or annoyed. It’s just not worth the stress.
- Inaccuracy. While many people count calories, few of them do it properly. You need to measure each food, enter it correctly, log everything you eat and figure out an accurate calorie goal to aim for. Unfortunately some people who count calories inaccurately and are quite off in their actual calorie intake.
- Obsession. Obsessing over your food is not a good thing for anybody to do, let alone a teenager or even younger. It is not unusual to see what begins as something as simple as counting calories turn into an obsession over food and body image. Fuelled by peer pressure and perhaps low self esteem it can be a slippery slope. So to the young people reading this, only count your calories if you:
(a) know what you are doing
(b) are no being fuelled by peer pressure or low self esteem
(c) know that you will not become obsessive or stressed if you don’t hit your calorie goal.
Instead of counting calories teenagers should focus on eating healthy, wholesome foods and being active.
Calorie counting is only one of the many weight loss tools. While great for some, it can be quite stressful and even unnecessary for others.
