Diet & Exercise Plan for 17-Year-Olds

Weight loss can help improve your health if your doctor has indicated that you're overweight, but a 17-year-old boy or girl shouldn't obsessively restrict calories or over exercise. If you're subsisting on soda, fast food and processed snacks, your diet could use some cleaning up so that it provides more nutrition and fewer empty calories. Use a diet and exercise plan to create healthy habits that help you manage your weight for a lifetime 3.

Weight Considerations for a Teen

Before embarking on a weight-loss program, ask yourself why you want to lose. Realize that wanting to lose weight to match some ideal magazine image or movie actor isn't realistic or necessary. People are built differently; some have lithe frames, while others are more muscular and stocky. If your weight is healthy for your age, height and gender, significant weight loss isn't necessary 3. Improve the quality of the food you eat, avoid processed snacks and meals and get adequate exercise daily to boost your health, not just to get skinnier.

Fad diets that severely restrict calories, limit entire food groups or ask for you to not eat for long periods of time should be avoided. These may deprive you of valuable nutrients necessary to proper growth and bodily function, and they can negatively affect your skin and hair. You may also lose weight in the short term, only to gain a lot more back in the long run. These diets don't teach you how to eat well or exercise healthfully either.

Dietary Tactics for Weight Loss

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Fill the rest of your plate with watery, fibrous vegetables, such as:

• lettuce
  
• spinach
  
• peppers
  
• broccoli
  
• cauliflower
  
• onions
  
• carrots

Drink low-fat milk with meals or snacks to get calcium and vitamin D for your growing bones.

17-Year-Old Beginner Workout

You could head to the gym or join a sports team. If structured exercise isn't your thing, use the hour to do a brisk walk, ride your bike or dance to your favorite tunes in your room. Choose a cardiovascular exercise that involves weight bearing to help strengthen your bones and do it at least three times a week. For example, if you're a competitive swimmer, you should still jog or hike as cross training.

As part of this seven-hour-per-week minimum exercise routine, do some movement three times per week that requires strength — such as pushups, pullups, flowing yoga, core exercises or gymnastics. This helps improve your muscular endurance and function. Plus strong muscles help boost your calorie burn and make you look healthy 3.

Lifting weights is an option to promote sports performance and your overall health. Start gradually and consult your doctor before beginning a program to make sure it's right for you. You might also benefit from guidance from a fitness professional to learn the correct equipment and form for you.

Read more: How Teens Can Get Six-Pack Abs Fast

Sleep More and Stress Less

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Sleep plays a significant role in your diet and exercise program. You may be inclined to stay up late, but this provides you with opportunities to snack on unhealthy foods and take in unnecessary calories. When you have to get up early the next day for school or weekend activities, you might resort to high-calorie energy drinks or sugary coffee drinks to perk you up. Too little sleep also increases hormones that make you crave high-sugar and high-fat foods. Sleeping fewer than eight hours per night puts you at three times the risk of obesity compared to those who sleep more, reported Healthy Sleep at Harvard 3.

Stress affects a teen's eating behavior and physical activity. The February 2014 issue of the journal Electronic Physician published a paper noting that emotional stress leads to being overweight or obese for boys and girls. If you feel overwhelmed by school, social situations and family issues, watch how it affects your eating and exercise habits. Instead of reaching for food to make you feel better, consider going for a walk, calling a friend or writing in a journal.