Ep 37 . The 17 motivations for weight loss in teens
Apr 03, 2024
Dr Jenny Gourgari
In this episode I discuss why teenagers decide to get to a healthier weight and how we, as caretakers and supporters, can help maintain that flame of motivation. We're not just talking about health; we're addressing the spectrum of desires from seeking peer acceptance to gearing up for significant life events.
Listen to learn the 17 distinct motivations driving teens toward a healthier lifestyle.
Details of the research manuscript that gave the answer to this question:
Motivations for weight loss in adolescents with overweight and obesity: a systematic review. David Franciole Oliveira Silva1, Karine Cavalcanti Maurício Sena-Evangelista2, Clélia Oliveira Lyra2, Lucia Fátima Campos Pedrosa2, Ricardo Fernando Arrais3 and Severina Carla Vieira Cunha Lima2
Dr Gourgari is a pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine expert and weight loss coach for teens with more than 15 years of experience. She helps teens build healthy habits that last, so they can feel happier, be more confident and love their body again .
In this episode I discuss why teenagers decide to get to a healthier weight and how we, as caretakers and supporters, can help maintain that flame of motivation. We're not just talking about health; we're addressing the spectrum of desires from seeking peer acceptance to gearing up for significant life events.
Listen to learn the 17 distinct motivations driving teens toward a healthier lifestyle.
Details of the research manuscript that gave the answer to this question:
Motivations for weight loss in adolescents with overweight and obesity: a systematic review. David Franciole Oliveira Silva1, Karine Cavalcanti Maurício Sena-Evangelista2, Clélia Oliveira Lyra2, Lucia Fátima Campos Pedrosa2, Ricardo Fernando Arrais3 and Severina Carla Vieira Cunha Lima2
Dr Gourgari is a pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine expert and weight loss coach for teens with more than 15 years of experience. She helps teens build healthy habits that last, so they can feel happier, be more confident and love their body again .
This is the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. If you're 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 Gorgery 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 Gorgory 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 2:
Hello, hello, welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. This is Dr Jenny Gorgary, and today I will be talking about how to stay motivated to lose weight as a teenager. So I know we all try to be in a healthy weight, especially in the beginning of the year, and as the months go by and as we try to get in shape and get to a healthier weight, our motivation kind of goes down. So I thought it would be important to talk about what is it that motivates teenagers in general to want to be in a healthier weight and then discuss a few strategies that can help keep that motivation high. That can help keep that motivation high.
Speaker 2:
So there was actually a research study that was done that looked at the different motivations for weight loss in teenagers. It was published in BMC Pediatrics in 2018. The title of the manuscript is Motivations for Weight Loss in Adolescents with Overweight and Obesity a Systematic Review. So what the researchers did is they searched in the scientific database, they tried to find other studies that looked at motivation for weight loss in teenagers and they analyzed the data and they try to group them into different categories and try to identify what is it that motivates teenagers to want to get into a healthier weight. So they came up with 17 different motivations among teenagers, so let's just dive into them. The first one, and the one that they found in most studies that evaluated this topic, was the desire to be healthier. Number two appearance reasons, like they wanted to look more beautiful. Number three they wanted to improve their self-esteem more beautiful. Number three they wanted to improve their self-esteem. Number four they wanted to avoid bullying. Number five they wanted to be healthier. Number six to be in better fitness and shape. Number seven to have peer acceptance and greater social integration. Number eight to fit into normal size or more elegant clothing. Number nine being more attractive to the opposite sex. Number 10, doing things for enjoyment. Number 11, facing major changes in life. Number 12, personal motivation. Number 13, celebrating the 15th birthday. 14, increased mobility, practicing physical activities. Number 15, to feel good. Number 16, accepting oneself. And number 17, to improve the quality of life.
Speaker 2:
Now, why is it important to know, or to at least have an idea of the different types of motivations? Because everything starts from awareness and I was very happy to see that on the top of the list, at least in this research, was the desire to improve the health is really the main motivation that should be the drive of our efforts. Know mainly what my drive is for wanting to educate families and teenagers into how to get to a healthy weight is because implications of unhealthy weight gain for the future in terms of higher risk for diabetes, higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea, high risk for high blood pressure, high risk for fatty liver disease, high risk for depression and anxiety, high risk for high blood pressure, high risk for knee pain and joint pains, high risk for getting strokes and heart attacks in the future. So there are a lot of health implications that are associated with an unhealthy weight and this is why we are even doing anything about it. But of course, I understand that teenagers may not have the same perception of the world and may not have the same maturity as adults do and may not be able to fully grasp it. And that is okay and that is why we are here.
Speaker 2:
But that doesn't mean that not paying attention to a motivation for appearance reasons is not valid. If this is what they feel, if this is how they want to feel better, they want to improve their self-esteem, they want to be in shape, they want to have better performance in sports, or these are valid and excellent motivations. So it is important, though, to look at these different types of motivation. Or maybe, if you have a teenager and none of these reasons fits into their own life, then ask them why is it important for them? Why are they doing it? Why do they want to make the changes and write it down? Just spend five, 10 minutes, take a piece of paper and a pen and just write down what is my motivation, why am I doing this? And put that piece of paper somewhere where you can see it. You can put it next to his bed, you can put it in the bathroom, you can put it as a screenshot on your phone just somewhere where they can actually see it. And because difficult moments will come, when we have to change our habits and become somebody who is not who we used to be, and during those difficult times, it's important to come back to this motivation. It's important to know why we're doing what we're doing.
Speaker 2:
And finally, I wanted to briefly mention also some other simple strategies to keep up the motivation, besides what I said to write it down and keep looking at it. Keep looking at the motivation every day when you wake up. Another thing is to surround yourself with friends and family that are supporting you in this journey, that they don't increase your temptation, that they actually support you if you're having a difficulty, instead of making it harder for you. So if, let's say, you're trying to have healthier nutrition and then all your friends eat pizza every day and you hang out with them every day, it's not impossible, but it's probably not the best scenario for you to help you. It's not the most, it's not the supportive environment you're looking for.
Speaker 2:
And another thing you could do is to track your progress. Keep a journal, write it down, what you're doing. Well, it may not necessarily be how much weight you lost, but, for example, it can be that, hey, today I had three fruits and yesterday I didn't have any fruits, or the day before, like I'm making it progress because I am eating more fruits than what I used to eat a month ago. That's a huge progress. So not focusing really on the weight, not focusing really on the scale, but focusing on the things that you do better today than the things that you did yesterday.
Speaker 2:
So let's say you want to go to a party, and usually when you go to a party, you have five slices of pizza and you're having chips, or you are having sodas and you make a conscious decision that when you go to parties you won't have soda, you'll have water, or you will skip the pizza or you will skip the chips, whatever it is. Whatever it is that you decide, just set your mind on it and track your progress and congratulate yourself. Congratulate the effortratulate why you're doing it and keep looking at your motivation. Keep looking at your inner. Listen to your inner voice telling you why you're doing what you're doing, because the reality is nobody can force anyone to make healthier choices unless they actually themselves have decided to make the effort for whatever it is important to them.
Speaker 2:
So if you are a parent and you have a teenager who is trying to get into a healthier weight, I invite you to start the conversation about what is it that makes it important, if it is important to get to a healthier weight and sometimes timing is important too Maybe now is not the right time, maybe they don't want to do anything about it, maybe they want to do it later and, of course, by not doing anything, oftentimes the problem may get worse. But just keep opening the conversation around this topic and try to be supportive and try to respect everyone's decision and reason of why they want to do what they want to do. That's all I had for today. I hope this was helpful. If you also find it helpful, please share it with your friends and family. And if you haven't posted a review and you're listening to my podcast, I would really really appreciate it if you can post a review on your Apple, itunes or your podcast provider. Thank you very much and I'll talk to you soon. Take care, bye.
Speaker 1:
If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I invite you to you soon. Take care Bye, 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 Teams.