Article by Peter Stockwell

If you are a kid who wants to lose weight you should first find out if you really are overweight. Maybe you have been a victim of teasing or bullying, perhaps you just don’t like what you see in the mirror. You need facts. It’s easy enough to find out. Just Google ‘Body Mass Index for Children’ The Body Mass Index or BMI gives you a range of healthy numbers – fall below the lowest and you are underweight, go above the highest and you are overweight. If you stay in the middle you have nothing to worry about. Do your Google search and find a simple form where you can type in your height, weight, age and sex. That will give you your BMI and you just need to check it against the range of numbers they will also give you. Some sites can get rather complicated, skip those and find a simple form. Now you know where you are. If you are at the top of the range you may need to lose a few pounds. If you are over the top of the range you definitely need to lose weight. Be careful if you are getting towards the bottom of the range – being underweight is as bad as being overweight. Knowledge is power and now you know more about your own weight than anybody else.So what do you need to do? First of all talk to your parents. In an ideal world your parents would be supportive and help you reach your ideal weight. But what if they are not? There may be many reasons. Perhaps they think you are fine and are worried that a diet will lead to anorexia. Maybe they think you just have puppy fat and you will grow out of it. Worse of all your parents might be overweight themselves, happy the way they are and not prepared to help you avoid becoming the same.What with that and possibly being teased by brothers or sisters, as well as having problems at school, life can become very difficult, but not impossible. To some extent you can still do what you think is right, it is just harder.If your parents are worried about anorexia show them your BMI and tell them you are not anorexic, you just want to be healthy. Agree on your ideal weight and promise not to go below it. Don’t forget to check your BMI every so often to allow for how you are growing and adjust your ideal weight accordingly. If your parents think you just have puppy fat tell them about a study in the UK which showed that out of 5000 children who were overweight at 11 few were a healthy weight at 16. If your parents are not interested in helping you lose weight you will just have to do what you can. Your food at home may not be the best, but you can cut out snacks, fizzy drinks and fast food when you are out and take plenty of exercise.The way to lose weight is to eat fresh fruit and vegetables and high fibre foods like granary bread. Try to eat lean meat such as chicken and eat fish from time to time. Cut down on fats, sugars and white processed food like white bread or white rice. You must exercise for at least 30 minutes a day; you don’t have to do it in a gym. You can jog, swim, cycle, dance, play ball games or do anything else energetic you enjoy. Just make daily exercise part of your lifestyle.That’s all there is to it, talk to your parents and try to get them onside. If you have problems don’t despair – do your best, keep exercising, and you will get slimmer and healthier each day.