A Teen Weight Loss Success Story

Teens can get into a variety of fun activities in order to lose weight. With overweight teens getting increasingly more common nowadays, finding more enjoyable ways of getting rid of excess weight.

Unique ways may appeal to more teenagers as they not only want to look at losing weight as something that they have to do instead of being something that they really want to do. Once they enjoy doing it, they have an increased likelihood of keeping it up and become more successful in trying to lose weight.

But how can you make losing weight more fun? Well, exciting activities that appeal to the teenager will likely do it. There is a story of a certain teenage girl who lost weight simply by playing a video game. Now, what can be more exciting and fun than that? Losing weight while playing a video game? This is some story that is worth listening to.

This typical teenage girl makes use of her time at the arcade to lose weight. She started playing a popular video game called "Dance Dance Revolution (DDR)" at the age of 17. At that time, she was a senior in high school and weighed about 235 lbs, pretty overweight for a teenage girl. But after four and a half years of playing the said video game, she now weigh about 140 lbs.

She couldn't even imagine just how much a video game would come to affect her health and weight concerns with positive results. The said video game even helped her grow to be a better and more self-confident teen. Before discovering the video game, she was a rather inactive person not used to go about doing such activities.

Although she was active as a member in different bands, orchestras, drama, and had already played video games, she didn't regularly get out for exercise. She became really unhappy when she realized that she was at an unhealthy weight. Just as what happens with most obese people, she started losing hope that she will ever be a normal person again when faced with the fact that she had so much weight to lose. The Internet became a form of escapism so that she didn't have to face people in person because of her overweight condition.

In college, she became increasingly unhappy being in a new environment and her weight continued to yo-yo, usually staying at around 235 lbs. Sometime around October of 2002, a fun new game version of a game called DDR USA was released that contained a ton of new songs to dance to. She tried the game out and soon became addicted to the video game with a high activity rate. Not long after, she began frequenting the video arcade almost everyday playing the video game for hours and hours.

At one point, she came to discover a website which had a Bulletin Board where people would meet online and talk about DDR and music games and she quickly became friends with the regulars. She was able to get to know friends who were able to motivate her to play more frequently and for hours at a time. It was during around this time she began losing most of her weight.

In her first six months of playing, she was able to lose 45 lbs with no change in her diet whatsoever. Once she discovered that she can find herself at a more comfortable weight again, she decided to make healthy changes in her life such as following a more healthy diet. She became more conscious of what she ate and as a result, lost an additional 20 lbs.

Playing the game regularly and coupled with a healthy diet has allowed her to maintain a healthier weight than she ever thought possible. All because she was able to enjoy losing weight by playing a video game that changed her life.

Weight Loss Pills For Teens

Someone once said, "Health is wealth." This statement is true given that there are more teens obese today than it was 20 years ago which could lead to various problems in the future such as diabetes and heart disease.

The best way to lose those extra pounds is by working out and going on a diet. Unfortunately, a lot of teens find it difficult to balance the time, which is why many have turned to weight loss pills.

Weight loss pills are designed to make a person lose weight by suppressing one's appetite. The only drug approved by the FDA for use on teens between the ages of 12 and 16 is Xenical, which was once only used by overweight women.

When teens decide to eat food, the main ingredient, Orlistat blocks the absorbing of fat and releases this out through the intestine as waste. In a comparative study done between those who took the drug and those on a placebo diet, results prove that the people here lost an average of seven to eight pounds, which is much higher than the other group.

Since the body needs fat, teens are advised to compensate for the losses by having this replenished during the three regular meals of the day. 

The test group did not just take Xenical to get the results. These people also had to follow a strict diet plan and exercise to maintain the weight that was lost. One of the things to also watch out for are the side effects such as gas pains, nausea and wet stools that will prompt the person to frequently go to the toilet. 

Xenical is a prescription drug. This means that the parents of the teenager or that person cannot just buy this off the counter. It is only after a thorough medical examination has been conducted that the doctor will allow the patient to use this kind of medication.

Will someone who takes this get the same results like those in the test study? The answer is no. This figure could be higher or lower which really depends on the patient's metabolism.

Patients are advised to discontinue the use of Xenical if there are no signs of improvement after six months. Doctors may have to try something stronger such as the next one called Meridia.

Meridia is a diet pill that sends a signal to the brain making the person think that the body is already full after eating only a few servings. The ingredient that makes this happen is called Sibutramine. It works much differently than Xenical with the same objective of losing the excess weight. 

There are two other diet pills that the patient may take. These are namely Bontril and Didrex. These ingredients of these two drugs are different and the doctor may increase the dosage if there are no signs of improvement.

Unlike Xenical and Meridia, both of these pills have certain ingredients that are quite addictive so this can only be used for a short period of time. A gradual decrease in the dosage is also done to prevent withdrawal symptoms.

Diet pill such as those mentioned are only used for teens that are obese. Those who are overweight will have to go on a diet and exercise given that people at this young age can still engage in strenuous activity unlike people two or three times that age.