Ep 22. Summer weight gain in teens

Many of us associate summer with outdoor activities and healthier living, but research suggests that this isn't always the case. In this podcast,  we will explore more the reasons behind summer weight gain in teens, its impact on their health, and practical strategies for parents to help their children maintain a healthy lifestyle year-round.

This is a review study  that I present here 

"The State of the Summer, A Review of Child Summer Weight Gain and Efforts to Prevent It," published in Current Obesity Reports in 2018. 

I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach. 
After helping hundreds of teens struggling with their weight and hormones, I’ve created a whole new path by doing what most programs miss: balance puberty hormones naturally and create habits that actually last.

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Transcript

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Summer Weight Gain in Children

Speaker 1 0:04

Are you getting frustrated with what to feed a teenager who is always hungry ? Everybody knows that teenagers have a huge appetite . It seems like you need to feed them constantly to satisfy their hunger . It's even more difficult where teenagers who struggle with their weight truly want to make changes like cut down on junk food or stop ever eating , and they can't . There's frustration , isolation , stress , and that's why I decided to create a recipe collection of 30 easy and healthy meals for teenagers . They're all high in protein to satisfy your teenager's hunger and they can all be ready in less than 30 minutes . If you want to grab a free copy , go to lifestell14scom for the last recipes .

Speaker 2 1:05

This is the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast . If you are a mom and want to help your child who is struggling to lose weight , you are in the right place . If you are looking for healthy lifestyle tips , dr Gorgary is here to help you understand the science around safe weight loss in teens and children , because what works for adult weight loss is not always the best for children . This podcast is for educational purposes only . Dr Gorgary does not provide medical , psychological or nutrition therapy advice . You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems without consulting your own medical practitioner and now your host , dr Jenny Gorgary .

Speaker 1 1:49

Hello , this is Dr Gorgary . Welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast . I know the summer is now behind us , we're in the fall , and so I decided to talk to you today about a topic that has to do with summer weight gain . As we know , in majority of people's minds , we all think that summer is a lot of activities . Kids are out of school , they go to camp and therefore they have more opportunities to exercise , and therefore we expect that most kids are going to be in a healthier weight after the summer . Well , that may be the case for some kids , but it may not be the case for all kids , and in fact , there was a research that was done to investigate that , and there have been a few studies that show that kids , when they go out in the summer , they tend to gain weight . So , as I said , it's not the case for everyone , and the reason I bring this up is because if that is the case for your teenager , then don't be disappointed , because there are reasons this happens . So let me just describe briefly the research that I found that is relevant to this topic . The title of the manuscript is the State of the Summer a Review of Child Summer Weight Gain and Efforts to Prevent it . It was published in Current Obstetrics reports in 2018 . And it was a review study , meaning that they just described different studies that were published on this topic , and I have to say the majority of these studies were actually done in younger kids , particularly kids in kindergarten and first graders and elementary school . However , I think a lot of those factors that they are described can also be relevant to older kids in the middle school and high school to some degree . So , even though not all information is relevant to teenagers , I think this will be helpful for parents that have younger kids , or that parents that have teenagers that can identify with some of these behaviors .

Speaker 1 4:10

So let's start by one big study that the authors described . It was a study published in 2015 by Moreno and his group where they looked at 7,599 students in elementary school and what they found was that the kids that were in the summer after first grade had the highest weight gain , and as the kids get older and approach the fifth grade , that weight gain tended to decrease . Now there was another study in 2016 where they looked at 13,000 kids that they were . They tracked them from kindergarten through the start of the second grade and they also had the same results . That body mass index , or the weight for their height , for the kids rapidly increased during the summer compared to what it did during the school year . If you don't know what the body mass index is , or a BMI or a health what is a healthy body mass index for your teenager , you can go back and listen to episode one of this podcast . Now there was the authors also described another study that was done in middle schoolers . It was done among 865 middle schoolers in the Pacific Northwest , and in this particular study , which was done by Daraf and colleagues , there was actually beneficial changes in the body mass index . Again , this seems to suggest that this effect , as kids get older becomes , has less of an impact . There was also other studies that were done in kids that they were high risk to gain weight from certain categories like Hispanic youth between the ages of 8 to 12 . And they noticed that the body fat increasingly significantly both over the school year and over the summer , and so that suggests that Hispanic youth are at higher risk for weight gain not only during school year but also during the summer year .

Speaker 1 6:34

Now , of course , the question that comes to mind is why does this happen and is there a reason ? And if we know the reason , then we can do something about it . So one of the reasons is that us kids go into summer , they lose the structure of the school year , so they may end up sleeping more during the day and they may stay up late at night . And for especially younger kids , that may end up not actually getting enough sleep as they do during school years Now we're talking about teenagers . Then things can get again more complicated because they can get into late activities , be involved with their friends and they may or may not get a catch-up sleep . A lot of them tend to get catch-up sleep during the day and during the week , so the effect of the sleep deprivation is less . But that's one factor to consider , especially in younger kids , that they may not have this catch-up of sleep where they wake up , still wake up early in the morning and they go to bed late . Another potential reason this happens is because they can have more desserts , ice cream , baked goods . They often visit relatives , they go on vacations , there's a lot of food that they want to try . They are thirsty more and instead of drinking water they drink sugar , sweet and beverages and that may increase the total calories they're getting in compared to the winter .

Speaker 1 8:22

Now another explanation , which can go both ways , is in regards to physical activity . So what happens during summertime ? Well , there are some kids that can go to camp and they can have a lot of physical activity and they can go for a long period at camp during summertime maybe two months , one month and that can have beneficial effect overall in their activity level . However , there are other kids that don't have the ability to go to camp or if they go , they may go only for one week or two weeks and therefore what ends up happening is they stay at home and they play video games or they spend time in front of the TV or they spend time in front of their phones , so , in other words , their screen time during summer may increase .

Speaker 1 9:17

So , depending on what happens during the summer in regards to physical activity , that can also have an effect on this summer weight gain that we may observe . So it is not surprising that some of the kids end up having some extra pounds during the summer time . That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them . That doesn't mean they're not as good as other kids that did better , or they it's perfectly okay . What is more important is , now that the school year has started , we can all do a fresh start .

Speaker 1 9:58

You can investigate what happened and you can see which area of the ones I mentioned before maybe could have contributed to those extra pounds during the summer . Was it not sleeping enough ? Was it playing more video games or spending more time in front of the screen ? Was it more sugar beverages ? Was it more ice cream or other desserts ? Was it more sedentary lifestyle overall ?

Speaker 1 10:30

So if this is the case , that your child gained some weight during the summer , it's an opportunity to have a discussion on why do you think this may happen and what can we do moving forward and how can we incorporate a healthy lifestyle within the school year . So I hope this was helpful for you and , as mentioned , don't feel bad and feel disappointed . Don't be in distress . It has been described that this happens in some children and the important thing is to see the bright side . We're now in school year . There is more structure , there's hopefully going to be more sleep and more unhealthier options for snacks and lunch and dinner . So start fresh , without drama , and I hope you all have a nice school year ahead

Introducing Lifts Program for Teen Health

Speaker 1 11:30

of you . Talk to you soon . Bye .

Speaker 2 11:33

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast , I invite you to come check out the Lifts program . It's Dr Gorgary's 12-week coaching program for teens and their moms , where we take all this information , we apply it to your daily life and we work together so your teenager learns how to create a healthy lifestyle so they can feel happier , more confident , less stressed and love their body again . Visit the website at lifestyleforteenscom and click on the work with me and free resources to learn more about this program and get free help to start this journey right away . Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you in the next episode of Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens .