by Lela Simon

Created on: May 17, 2008

Because of their growing and changing bodies teens need a lot more calories than you might expect, and many more than an overly self-conscious teen may wish to eat.

Just like with adults, how many calories he or she will need will depend entirely on the amount of activity that the teen gets daily, their current BMI (body mass index), how tall and how much he or she weighs and the sex of the teen.

A healthy weight is between 18 and 24 BMI. If you have a 13 year old girl who is 5' 4" tall and weighs between 91 and 129 lbs she is a healthy weight for her age. If she gets less than 30 minutes of exercise per day she would need between 1600 and 1800 calories per day to maintain her weight, depending on where she fell in the weight range. For a very active girl of the same height, weight and age that need would increase to between 2200 and 2400 calories.

A boy with the same BMI at 13 would be 5'6" tall and weigh between 97 and 137 pounds would need between 2200 and 2400 calories with a fairly sedentary lifestyle and between 3000 and 3200 calories if he were an athlete.

For a teen whose BMI exceeds 24, losing weight can be a touchy and emotional subject. A teen that is between the range of 24 and 32 is considered "overweight". Generally the ideal way of dealing with this issue is to reduce calories by 250 and increase activity to burn an additional 250 calories though gentle physical activity daily. For a 15 year old girl that is 5' 6" tall and weighs 162 lbs this would mean eating about 1750 calories per day and walking at a pace of 3.5 miles per hour for 50 minutes. For a boy in a similar BMI range ( 5' 8" 182 lbs) around 2150 calories and a 45 minute walk would create a calorie deficit and reduce weight.Ideally you should talk to your doctor first before making any changes to diet or exercise.

For teens with a BMI over 32, a trip to the doctor is in order first before any weight loss program should be taken on.

It is also important to point out that the quality of the calories are important as well. Many times teens go on extreme diets, cutting back calories to 1200 or even 1000 daily. This severely restricts their ability to get all the nutrients they need, especially when what few calories they are taking in are in the form of chips and soda. This kind of calorie restriction also sets them up for a slower metabolism in the future and stunts good development by staving the body of the nutrients it needs to do all the growing and changing that needs to be done. Encouraging kids to eat whole grains, fruits, vegetables and lean proteins in balance early on helps them to become healthy eaters as they become more independent in their food choices.

To find BMI check with a reliable calculator, such as the one at www.kidshealth.org/teen/nutrition/weight/bmi.html.

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