Diet vs. Lifestyle

After many teens realize that they are overweight and need to change their eating habits, they think, "No problem. I'll just go on a diet for a month or two to take off the extra pounds."
There's an important reason why this plan is faulty: Diets don't work. The medical explanation behind this is complicated and difficult to understand, but the gist of it is that when you begin a diet, your caloric intake is much less than normal. Because of this radical change, your body immediately responds with, "Help! I'm starving! I need more energy than this!" and begins using up stored calories.

Which, you may think, is what the idea was behind dieting in the first place. But there's a problem. When your body enters "starvation mode", it conserves all the body fat it can to protect itself, and instead burns more calories stored in muscle tissue to make up for the difference. So, yes, you may start losing weight when on a diet. But it's the wrong type of weight! As soon as the diet ends and you slacken your calorie intake standards, your body starts craving the foods that you've been keeping off of. If at this point you return to the eating habits that you had before you started the diet, where will the extra calories end up? The extra workload on your body will be piled onto your current body fat. So going on a diet actually works against you: after you resume your previous lifestyle, you'll end up with more weight than you started with!

The Solution

• Greatly increased amounts of energy to apply.
• Heightened perception and ability to concentrate.
• Exceedingly diminished risks of heart disease and cancer.
• Independence from reliance on junk food for "that extra boost".
• Your immune system will function much better, and be able to fight off colds and flus more effectively.