OMG Diet Targeting Teens and Tweens

A recent survey of ten year old girls found that 80% of these girls had been on a diet. So a fad diet that targets, by it's very name, teens and tweens deserves the scrutiny of parents everywhere. This diet suggests that taking ice baths every morning, drinking two big cups of black coffee, skipping breakfast, exercising and blowing up balloons is a good weight loss plan. I am not so sure but let's break this diet down and look at the safety of the individual components.
Taking ice baths lowers body temperature which does make the body burn a few calories to increase body temerature. Having said that, the calories burned after an ice bath are extremely small. Skipping what has been come to be known as the most important meal of the day does not sound like a healthy idea to me. The amount of caffeine in two large cups of coffee taken on an empty stomach will definitely get one reved up but will it last and is it safe? Many adults experience rapid heart beat from caffeine. What will it do to hungry children? I am not sure what the balloon blowing has to do with weight loss, but I do know that it helps people to learn to breath more deeply.

The sad truth is, for teens and adults alike, the only proven way to take the weight off is lifestyle changes, specifically healthy eating and exercise. It doesn't take the weight off quickly but it does usually take it off for good. Slow and steady really does win the weight loss race. The main problem with any fad diet is that people who drop the weight through a fad diet usually put all the weight back on and then some. Yoyoing weight and fad diets are not good for the body. Encourage your child not to fall victim to fad diets, help them to make better lifestyle choices and maybe we will help the next generation to make a dent in the weight issues plaguing our society today,