Lifestyle and Weight Loss For Teens
Struggling to help your teen get to a healthy weight—without crash diets, stress, or shame?
This podcast is for teens who want to feel better in their bodies—and for parents who want to support their kids the right way.
Hosted by Dr. Jenny Gourgari, a pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine, and teen weight loss coach with over 15 years of experience, this podcast focuses on balancing puberty hormones, building healthy habits, and understanding the real science behind teen weight and wellness.
Each week, Dr. Gourgari answers real questions like:
🧠 Why do I feel hungry all the time?
🍞 Are carbs bad for teens trying to lose weight?
🎮 Can active video games actually help with fitness?
🍓 Are smoothies helpful—or just sugar bombs?
💤 How does sleep affect my weight?
You’ll learn how puberty hormones impact your mood, metabolism, and energy—and how small changes in your routine can make a big difference.
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start understanding the why behind what’s happening in your teen body—or help your child do the same—hit follow and tune in every week.
🎁 BONUS: Get a free copy of 30 healthy and easy recipes for teens that are high in protein LIFESTYLEFORTEENS.COM/RECIPES
To learn more about the LIfestyle For Teens / LIFT Program, visit LIFESTYLEFORTEENS.COM/PROGRAM
Lifestyle and Weight Loss For Teens
Ep. 47 Weekend Catch-up Sleep and Teen's Eating Habits
As a mother, I know how tempting it is to let your teenager catch up on sleep over the weekend, but I've learned through research that this habit may be influencing their eating behaviors in ways we never expected.
Tune in to learn more about the complex relationship between poor sleep, hormonal changes, and cravings that challenge the common notion of 'catching up' on sleep.
Associations ofWeekday and Weekend Sleep with Children’s Reported Eating in the Absence of Hunger. Nutrients 2019, 11, 1658; doi:10.3390/nu11071658
If you're wondering…
❓ Why are teens hungry all the time during puberty?
❓ Why are teens craving sugar all the time?
❓ Why teens feel so tired—even when they sleep?
You’re not alone—and it’s not your fault.
Hormones play a HUGE role in how teens gain weight, feel energy, manage emotions, and grow.
Dr Gourgari is a certified pediatric endocrinologist, obesity medicine specialist and health coach for teens.
Each week, she break down how puberty hormones work—and how simple habits like eating better, sleeping more, and moving your body can help you feel better, stronger, and more confident.
We’ll talk about things like:
🥗 Are smoothies really healthy?
🍞 Are carbs bad for weight loss in teens?
💪 And how to stop emotional eating before it takes over your day.
Whether you’re a teen ready to make a change—or a parent looking to support your child the right way—this podcast is for you.
🎁 Want to jump in right now?
Grab your free guide: 30 Healthy, High-Protein Recipes for Teens at lifestyleforteens.com/recipes
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 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 Gorgory.
Speaker 2:Hello, welcome, welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. This is Dr Jenny Gorgory and today I will be talking again about sleep and I'm going to approach this from a different angle. And the reason I decided to do this podcast is because a family recently and I was talking to them and I was explaining the different reasons by which sleep is important for all teenagers when they're trying to get to a healthy weight, and I've talked about this before. You can go back and listen to episode four, where I talk about why is sleep important and how teenagers that can sleep more can get to a healthier weight in a better way, and also on episode 21, where I talked about the relationship between not sleeping very well and having cravings and what is the scientific evidence for that. So you can go to lifestyleforteenscom forward slash four or lifestyleforteenscom forward slash 21 to listen to episode four and 21. So on this episode I will put more emphasis on the relationship between poor sleep and eating at the absence of hunger. So basically, what's the relationship between poor sleep and eating out of boredom, eating when you're not really hungry? So we know that there is a relationship between poor sleep and cravings and poor sleep and hormonal changes.
Speaker 2:And, as I said, there was a family recently and there was this dispute again between mom and the teenager, where the teenager said that, yes, I don't sleep at night very early. However, I sleep more during the weekend and, of course, there is no doubt about that. This is a common theme I see about on the teenagers and they may think that, oh, I catch up, I sleep more on the weekends and families. I'm sure you know that this is a common pattern and the reason and the question is this the same Like if you're sleeping six hours in one night and then you're sleeping 12 hours over the weekend, does that still count? Because your overall sleep can be back to the recommended amount. And, remember, we want teenagers to sleep at least 8 to 10 hours per day and data from CDC shows that a majority of teenagers do not get the recommended sleep and, of course, there can be different parameters that can be affected from poor sleep.
Speaker 2:But on this episode, I'm going to focus what's the relationship between not sleeping enough during the weekday with eating without hunger, and there was an excellent study which was done recently, in 2019. It was published in the Journal of Nutrients, the actual title of the manuscript is Associations of Weekday and Weekend Sleep with Children's Reported Eating in the Absence of Hunger. So it was done at NIH. Briefly, what the researchers did is they asked teenagers to wear like a smart watch that would give them information on their sleep. So they would look at how many hours the teenagers slept during the weekday and then they looked at how many hours the teenagers slept during the weekend, and they also gave them a questionnaire, which is a validated questionnaire, to ask questions about how are they, whether they are eating at the absence of hunger, and so, for example, questions like that would be tell me, how often do you keep eating because others are still eating? How often do you keep eating because you're feeling bored, or how often do you keep eating because you're feeling anxious or nervous? So these questions kind of give you a score on like how likely are you to eat when you're not really hungry but you're eating for all those other reasons? And if you are eating for all these other reasons, then you're more likely to gain weight and be in an unhealthy weight.
Speaker 2:So what they found was that, even though there was no relationship between the average total sleep and their eating without hunger score, meaning that, yes, overall, their sleep was not the overall sleep throughout the week was not associated with this unhealthy behavior.
Speaker 2:But then if they looked individually at each night and then the catch-up sleep, which is the extra sleep they get during the weekend, they found that the kids that slept less during the weekdays and also the sleep, the extra sleep, the catch-up sleep that they had during the weekends, that was more associated with this behavior of eating without hunger.
Speaker 2:So I think this is a very important message and that's my take-home message to you all today is, if you are not getting enough sleep, consider adding like, even if it is half an hour or an hour, or, and doing all those things we've talked before about how to get better sleep, because that can potentially improve this behavior. Again, this is not a study that showed that, but it does give you a hint that there is an association which makes you think that if you could improve that, then that could potentially improve your this behavior to you. So if you find yourself eating without hunger or eating out of boredom or eating out of being anxious, ask yourself if this could be related to you not getting the recommended sleep. So that's all I had for you today. Again, if you haven't signed up for my newsletter, you can go to lifestyleforteenscom forward slash newsletter and I will send you weekly emails with tips and updates as I produce this content. Take care of your own.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I invite you to come check out the Lyft program. It's Dr Gorgeri'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.