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this is what ive been trying to say-but she says it so much better! thanks jenmcc! : D
hope you dont mind me copy + pasting this


#77 jenmcc Dec 07 2007 17:47 I have no idea what started this whole thread, since the original poster just deleted it, however, i want to comment about whether teens are done growing.

They may have reached their full adult height, this is true. However:

1) Up until about the mid-20s, the body is in peak bone-building mode. It will never be easier to build strong bones. NEVER. Once you reach your mid-20s, it's all downhill. You want to reach that age, and have the densest bones possible.

Bone-building is not just about diet, of course. Exercise and sunlight play a crucial role. But, restrictive diets can cause major problems. This is why anorexics in their 20s have the bones of 80 year olds. It needn't even be that restrictive: there are concerns we are creating a growing epidemic of osteoporosis, kids today have more porous bones ... many think that in addition to lack of exercise and sunshine, too many diet sodas and not enough dairy intake may be playing a role too.

2) Up until mid-20s, the body is also in peak muscle-building mode. Read what I wrote above about bones, and it's the same  idea. Except that you have to add this thought: you cannot build muscle while in calorie deficit!

Now, if you are an obese teen, yes, you do need to diet, because your weight causes all sort of other complications.  But this should be done under  medical supervision to ensure that muscle mass is retained.

3) From about age 12 until about age 21, your brain is growing at an ASTOUNDING rate! This is the latest research. We used to think the brain stopped growing in toddlerhood. It doesn't. It apparently undergoes a second, even more major, even more dramatic growth spurt from age 12 to age 21. Yep, long after you've reached your full adult height.

Starve your brain during this period of time and you are - literally! - preventing yourself from reaching your full intellectual adult potential. Your brain uses something like 70% of all the calories you consume every day. It doesn't like to use body fat either. It lives off circulating glucose, glucose from what you eat. If it doesn't have that, it'll break down your muscles next, instead of your body fat.

You also need healthy dietary fats - it has something to do with mylenation... I'm not an expert here. But this is critical to have when your brain is growing and making all these new connections.

The three reasons above are precisely why the recommendations for teens are always HIGHER than for adults. And if you do some surfing, you'll see that the experts all agree teens need more cals than adults - but little agreement on how *much* more. It is quite likely that the recommendations will be revised UPWARD again. And note, since these three things are going on up into the mid-20s, I would say that those in their early 20s may also want to reconsider dieting.

So, what do you do with this info, if you are a teen or early 20s?? It's absolutely key to get good and adequate nutrition. If you are obese, yes, you probably are better off on a carefully supervised diet and dropping the weight. It's a trade-off, medically speaking.

If you are only overweight, however, you are probably much better off NOT dieting. Eat a healthy, clean diet with a lot of variety, stay away from sodas and junk food, and get a balanced range of carbs, protein, fats. Don't eliminate or cut any of these too drastically - you need them ALL.

Then strive to Grow into your weight!! YES. Not talking here about growing TALLER. I'm talking about growing:

1) Denser bones

2) More muscle

3) A bigger, smarter brain

All of that takes calories. Any weight loss should be gradual and gentle.

And highly important: GET MOVING. This will encourage stronger bones, more muscle, greater connections in your brain. It'll make your body perform like it's intended to perform.

Ultimately, a healthy weight will follow. And you will reach your peak in your mid-20s with maximum lean mass, meaning you will have a much easier time managing your weight going forward.

Oh, quit your bickering before I send you two to separate forums.

i have to go to work so i will read beyond the first page of replies later but i thought i'd add that i started "dieting" when i was 15.5 yrs old. The difference was i knew i wouldnt grow or change because of genetics. Kids here need to look at their parents, ask questions etc. it's a fairly ood determiner of if you actually need to loose weight and even then it really should be eating healthier.

I stopped growing at 13. I started developing (both hips and bust) at about 12 so by 15 i was pretty much done. but their are others who don't develpoe til much later.

It's all about genetics people.

Oh and back then i didn't worry about calories and went down from 174 to 116 just by eating healthier, joining clubs and having fun!

I think the fact that restricting calories makes people grumpy is being borne out in this discussion. :)

Original Post by giggle_puppy:

i dont buy growing into your weight....

 

The doctor suggest I do nothing regarding weight loss with my daughter and let her grow into it. Just teach her healthy eating habits and keep an eye and make sure she isn't gaining more than normal and she'd eventually grow into her weight.

So, ya it's true.......growing kids do grow into their weight unless they are extremely obese.

 

14, 15 and 16 year olds may not be done growing but that doesn't mean their not overweight and needing to drop a few pounds.  Childhood obesity is such a problem it's actually lowering life expectancy.  So while there will be a few 110 pounders looking to lose weight which is not good, there will be a lot more who actually need help.

Dairy 3-4 times a day?  There's a lot of other good ways to get calicum.  With all the pasteurizing and homogenizing dairy seems more to be more poison then beneficial...just an opinion.

The feeling of being full doesn't kick in right away so I could pack away 2,000 calories at dinner before feeling full so I think monitoring calories is probably a good idea.  I don't agree with 1,200 calories a day though, unless a prescribed by and under the care of a trained professional.

I sometimes get frustrated with people on here [not just young people]. It's just rude to say "I ate 750 calories today and my BMI is over 17 I am so fat" and things like that when there are people who really are plus-sized and often sensitive about it. It happens to be mostly young people, and it gives us a bad name. Yes, I *actually* am a small-boned teen who has gained a lot of weight from unhealthy binging... real binges, not the *OMG 6 crackers* binges... 

is it wrong that kids are trying to become more active and carry their eating habits into adulthood?

 

i was fat as a kid, and simply waiting to grow taller is not a healthy lifestyle choice. i carried all my horrible eating habits, and this is where I'm at.

 

OP sounds old. 

I agree it does get a little annoying. (not to mention repetitive)

So I just move on after glancing over those threads...

live and let live

Original Post by chemi:

OP sounds old. 

You say this like it's an insult, and you wonder why there is a rift between generations... jeez.

 

Again, I doubt ANYONE here has a problem with people posting questions and trying to get help getting healthy and eating healthy. Most of us (hey, i'm speaking for you!!! ;-)) have a problem with the type of EXTREME reactionary posts and attention seeking done with most of the posts from young girls gaining half a pound and asking if she should starve that half pound off.

THAT AND NO ONE HERE USES THE DAMN SEARCH FEATURE AND WE END UP WITH 1,000,000,000,000 OF THE SAME DAMN TOPICS.  <--- pet peeve. ;-)

I hate how nobody uses the search!  Someone posted asking for low-cal alcohol mixes and I scoured Google for a good website.  The next day, another post!  And then later that day, the same post!

And every day you see at least two new Master Cleanse posts or diet pill posts.  I think it's the repetition of these posts that makes everyone snarky and cynical, not the question being asked.

The only post I don't mind being repeated are sex posts.

*cannot help but point out the irony that we have had fifteen thousand and a half complaint posts about teenagers*

Seriously, there really aren't many new thread topics.

Can i make a post complaing about people complaining about other people complainingg?

We've had multiple of those too :p

hmm well lets come up with a good one Hkellick...  

I haven't read all the previous posts but I don't care if anyone calls me old or old sounding. Sometimes the teens on here are severely annoying. I think the insanely over dramatic stuff is the worst. I.E. "I want to die!!! OMG!!! I just ate 200 calories!"

I think these kids need some more attentive parenting or more attention from a good role model or something.

You cannot whitewash a whole group of people as being a certain way - I don't care what group of people you are referring to ....replace your words with "black people" or "Jewish People" or whatever and you will see how awful it sounds. 

This site attracts some people who are ill, this illness just happens to have it's onset during puberty when these people are at their most vunerable.  MOST teens are not this way - probably not even most teens on this site - I would never make that statement though until I have met and know every single one of them. Then I would be qualified and justified to make a statement like that. 

I would hope this site would never exclude any group of people - if it did I would be leaving in a heart beat!  Thankfully I have been here long enough to know this is not the case.   

Original Post by peacelovehominy:

ive only heard ONE teenage girl go about dieting in a healthy approach. im making this statement on the teens i have heard of so far.

So, you assume based on a relatively small sample group, that all teenagers are like this?

I agree with anewdawn. We can't group all people of a certain age group together.