Ideal Body Weight

When the new year rolls around, most people decide they want to lose weight. If I were to guess, I would say that almost 50% of the New Year’s resolutions that are made involve losing weight and body image. There seems to be a huge problem in today’s society with finding your ideal body weight. There are many who are now obese, and if you look towards Hollywood, you will see many who are severely underweight. It is no wonder that children are so confused when it comes to body image, and it’s no wonder that eating disorders are becoming more and more common.

If you look at Hollywood stars in magazines, you would be led to believe that the ideal body weight for any person is much smaller or less than most people can achieve. When teens grow up believing that weighing 90 pounds is an ideal body weight, they often end up with a seriously distorted view of their own body. Most people who are five foot eight can not safely weigh anything less than 100 pounds. However, Hollywood would have you believe that this is what they are supposed to be. This can be very dangerous for an impressionable teenage girl who is struggling to find her own identity.

Teenagers may also be confused about ideal body weight when they look at the members of their family. So many people are overweight, and there is still a huge stigma associated with this. Though it is not healthy to be overweight, some people are at their ideal body weight, yet they are still considered to be overweight by those around them. For a teenager, this sort of short sighted criticism can lead to a distorted idea of what an ideal body weight really is.

If you think your teenager is confused about what their ideal body weight should be, you should take them and to speak to your family physician, though you may be able to tell them that they are just fine the way they are, they mean need to hear it from a doctor. Teenagers trust their parents more than they will let on, but they will have even more trust in a doctor. Tell your family doctor that your teenager is having issues with understanding what an ideal body weight might be, and that you hope they can explain to your child in simple terms what the reality of the matter really is.