Teen Dietitian: On the Job of a Weight Loss Specialist

Obe­si­ty is a diag­no­sis that is increas­ing­ly being made in ado­les­cents and chil­dren today. Envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion, mal­nu­tri­tion, includ­ing an increase in the pro­por­tion of fast food and semi-fin­ished prod­ucts in the diet, a decrease in motor activ­i­ty — all this leads to weight gain in chil­dren. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it is often very dif­fi­cult for par­ents to cope with this prob­lem on their own. Then the help of spe­cial­ists such as a teenage nutri­tion­ist is required.

The importance of learning about proper nutrition

The prob­lem of excess weight in chil­dren today is so acute that schools even intro­duce extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties ded­i­cat­ed to a healthy lifestyle and prop­er nutri­tion.

Sci­en­tists, whose research data were pub­lished in the Euro­pean Jour­nal of Clin­i­cal Nutri­tion, con­sid­er ado­les­cence a crit­i­cal peri­od in life when eat­ing habits can pro­found­ly change eat­ing habits for years to come. Nutri­tion­ists con­sid­er it very impor­tant for ado­les­cents to receive nutri­tion­al sup­port in terms of edu­ca­tion in order to improve their knowl­edge of nutri­tion.

It is worth empha­siz­ing that this is also impor­tant because mal­nu­tri­tion entails many health prob­lems. This applies to both dis­eases of the gas­troin­testi­nal tract, and car­dio­vas­cu­lar patholo­gies, prob­lems in the func­tion­ing of the mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem, endocrine sys­tem, etc.

Spe­cial work is being done with chil­dren whose obe­si­ty is the result of a genet­ic dis­ease. So, experts whose research data were pub­lished in the jour­nal Pedi­atric endocrinol­o­gy, dia­betes, and metab­o­lism, believe that a prop­er­ly for­mu­lat­ed diet can pre­vent mal­nu­tri­tion in the ear­ly years of life and the devel­op­ment of over­weight in the future in chil­dren with Prad­er-Willi syn­drome.

Features of weight correction in adolescents and children

Meth­ods for cor­rect­ing excess weight in ado­les­cents begin with work and inter­ac­tion with par­ents, because fam­i­ly tra­di­tions and the way of life of the child often lead to over­weight. When par­ents forcibly force him to eat up from ear­ly child­hood, when they often arrange feasts with friends and rel­a­tives, this can cause weight prob­lems for all fam­i­ly mem­bers.

The psy­cho­log­i­cal fac­tor should not be dis­count­ed either, because chil­dren in ado­les­cence under­go a process of per­son­al­i­ty for­ma­tion asso­ci­at­ed with emo­tion­al insta­bil­i­ty, increased inter­est in their appear­ance, self-affir­ma­tion and self-deter­mi­na­tion, mis­un­der­stand­ing, and love expe­ri­ences.

With the help of food, a teenag­er can drown out some neg­a­tive emo­tions — fear, anger, anx­i­ety, which ulti­mate­ly leads to the appear­ance of excess weight. In any case, only a spe­cial­ist can take into account all the pro­vok­ing fac­tors in the com­plex, hav­ing com­piled a com­pe­tent pro­gram for weight loss.

Of course, with­out the par­tic­i­pa­tion of par­ents, it will be dif­fi­cult to imple­ment it. Adults will also have to rethink their approach to cook­ing, change the habits that have caused prob­lems for the child.

Often, par­ents start look­ing for some kind of diet, cut the child’s diet, depriv­ing him of vital nutri­ents, or even buy­ing “mag­ic” weight loss pills. It is bet­ter not to rely on your own strength, but to seek help from a spe­cial­ist who will devel­op a nutri­tion sys­tem based on the data of the nec­es­sary exam­i­na­tions, pre­scribe med­ica­tion along the way, if nec­es­sary, and help to cope with emo­tion­al prob­lems, psy­cho­log­i­cal depen­dence on food.