Personal Trainers Forum

[Personaltrainer]

Low Carb Diets Are Not For Teens

Teenagers are often just as concerned, if not more concerned,
about their weight than adults. They hear a lot about weight
conditions, such as anorexia, bulimia, and obesity, but they
seem much more concerned about obesity than about eating
disorders. Obesity is visible, and bad for your image, but
anorexia and bulimia are not so unthinkable – they are almost
'invisible' so there is less concern about them. Low carb diets
can lead to long term problems, changing eating habits for life
if the diet is picked up at an impressionable age, and having
physical and mental effects on the teen too.

Parents and adults often have trouble sympathizing with these
young men and women because they do not understand the exactly
what is going on with their teens. Biologically, adolescents
experience multiple changes in a short period of time, and what
was previously easy to deal with becomes difficult. Teenagers
and stress is a topic of growing concern, as the consequences
are severe, and the causes are becoming increasingly common.

The Short Term Side Effects

Teenagers do have one advantage over adults when it comes to
starting a low carb diet, and that's that fewer teens drink
coffee and caffeinated beverages than do adults. However, in
today's soda culture, though you might not be thinking of those
cokes as equivalents of your coffee and tea, your teenager's
soda drinking habit, if caffeinated, will cause their side
effects of low carb diets to be similar to yours would be.
Assuming that teenagers do not experience caffeine withdrawal as
part of their low carb diet side effects, the side effects that
they will probably experience are over tiredness, bad breath,
inability to concentrate, leg cramps, and in severe cases,
dizziness.

One big problem with low carb diets in young people is the
changes to the brain. A teenager needs their brain to be working
at 'full power', and when the body begins to adapt to a low carb
diet, it can lead to problems concentrating, as the brain
becomes accustomed to running on low fuel, and becomes slow and
hazy. In much the same way someone who is sleep deprived
behaves, the body can adjust and continue to function, but the
brain is still 'half asleep'.

The main thing to remember is that carbohydrates are the body's
preferred form of fuel. Other sources can be used too, but
carbohydrates are turned to first when the body needs energy. A
teenager is still growing, and if you deprive a teenage body of
carbohydrates, it will suffer, and they will have problems
concentrating, low energy levels, and poorer performance in any
sports that they enjoy. If your teen is considering a low carb
diet, educate them in the problems, there are much better diets
out there for teens, that can help them lose weight a safer and
healthier way.

Encourage Your Kid To Eat Healthy Foods And Get Enough Sleep

According to studies, people who eat well and get enough sleep
can cope with changing situations in life better than those who
live on dangerous diets, fast foods and do not get enough sleep.
To help your teenager grow up to become physically, mentally,
and emotionally healthy, give him or her proper nourishment and
encourage him or her to get enough sleep.