Are you sick of everyone making fun of your tummy or waistline? Do you often feel that you'd have a more enjoyable life, or that you'd click better with your friends ... if only you weren't as fat?

Here's how you can do something about your overweight problem.

Start by learning more about food, nutrition, exercise and bodyweight. Together with self-control and effort, you can lose weight healthily and keep off the extra fat.

Face the challenge and follow the tips below. Take charge of your life today. Start feeling good about yourself.

GROWING OLDER   Being overweight may be annoying or embarrassing at your age. But when you grow older, it can spell real trouble. Here are a few examples of the problems that can arise. Physical problems Tiredness all the time Sleeping poorly Sweating a lot Shortness of breath Snoring Low back pain Pain in your hips and knees Emotional problems Stress Depression Health problems Heart attack Stroke High blood pressure Diabetes Certain types of cancer

Look At The Way You Eat

Except in rare cases when hormones go haywire, unhealthy eating habits are usually the culprits responsible for making you overweight. Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you keep eating even after you're full?
• Do you eat all the time?
• Do you like bingeing (gobbling down loads of food in one sitting)?
• Are you addicted to food?
• Do you love dishes that are fatty or oily?
• Do you craze for sweetened foods and drinks, like chocolate, sweets, cakes, soft drinks and so on?
• Do you eat huge amounts of snacks, like keropok, chips, and so on?

If you mostly said "Yes", you shouldn't be surprised at being overweight.

Food provides energy which is usually measured in kilo calories (1000 calories = 1 kilo calorie). By overeating, you're overloading on the calories and therefore, getting more energy than you could possibly need. The same thing happens when you eat too much of high-energy foods ie those with lots of fat, oil and sugar.

Where does all the spare energy go? It gets turned into body fat that builds up under your skin, on your tummy, on your waist, around your arms and even outside your internal organs.

There's nothing very mysterious about becoming overweight. It's just about having too much spare energy that's got nowhere else to go.

"BUT I WATCH WHAT I EAT!" You might say this and it could probably be true -- you could be eating fairly normal portions of food. But why are you're still overweight? The answer is simple. Energy needs to be used up, otherwise it becomes body fat. You're most probably not doing enough physical activity or exercise to burn up the spare energy you've got.

Look At The Way Your Family Eats

Your weight could be influenced by your family upbringing. Overeating, loving fatty or sugary foods, unhealthy snacking and not exercising enough - all these could be a part of your family's lifestyle.

If you've inherited these behaviours, don't feel bad. Change to healthy habits and be a good example to your family members.

Control What And How You Eat

If you're a little overweight, do something about it before it turns into a bigger problem.

Gradually limit the total amount of food you eat every day, especially fatty foods. Get more involved in exercise and sports, and have as much physical activity in your life as possible.

Avoid severely restricting the amount of food you eat. Remember, your body needs food; so never eat less than you should.

If you have a serious weight problem, see a doctor, nutritionist or dietitian. These experts will give you advice on healthy diets and help you lower your weight.

	DIETING DANGERS	Think twice before following these common tactics to rapidly lose weight. They may be dangerous to your health. YO-YO DIETING Alternately starving and/or bingeing. This tends to make you overeat because you're too hungry after starving.
	CRASH DIET Cutting down food intake drastically. You'll lose out on the nutrients that your body needs. SLIMMING FOODS & BEVERAGES Foods and drinks that replace regular meals. You won't get the nutrients of various food groups. FAT BLOCKERS Pills that are supposedly able to prevent your body from absorbing fat from the foods you eat. It's better to eat less fat in the first place! ANTI-OBESITY DRUGS Some of these drugs work on the brain and others on the digestive system. Doctors usually prescribed these drugs to treat extremely overweight or obese people.	LOW CALORIE DIETS Specially formulated foods that provide only about 800 kilo calories for a whole day. Compare this amount against the 2,000 kilo calories or more that healthy, active teenagers usually need each day. VERY LOW CALORIE DIETS (VLCDs) Replace regular meals for the whole day with a diet of only 400 kilo calories. VLCDs should be taken with medical advice because they are very extreme.

Exercise It Off!

Losing weight is not easy for most people. You need to reduce 500 kilo calories per day just to shed 0.5 kg of body weight in a week. You can achieve this by eating less AND exercising more.

Ready to sweat off those extra kilos? The table below will tell you how much exercise you need to do, so that you can lose a few kgs.

Energy Expenditure Table: Burning what you eat ?

Beef Burger (Regular) Cooked Rice (1 Cup) Drumstick (1 Piece) Roti Canai (1 Piece) Nasi Lemak (1 Plate) Boys (55 kg, 17 yrs) Walking 105 mins 55 mins 35 mins 99 mins 129 mins Exercise sports 71 mins 37 mins 24 mins 67 mins 88 mins Girls (42 kg, 17 yrs) Walking 114 mins 60 mins 38 mins 108 mins 141 mins Exercise Sports 88 mins 46 mins 30 mins 83 mins 108 mins

WHEN YOU'RE TEMPTED BY FOOD

Eating's fun. But if you're trying to lose weight, you have to really watch what and how you eat. Think about this: one 50 g packet of potato chips provides 264 kilo calories of energy. Would you rather give the chips a miss or walk briskly for an extra _______ [time] just to make sure the additional energy doesn't become extra body fat?

+ If you are OVERWEIGHT | UNDERWEIGHT