This is Part II of Are You a Teen Who's an Extreme Dieter?  Many teens face issues with their weight but extreme dieting isn't the answer.  You may feel desperate for a solution but starving yourself or popping pills isn't the answer.  I'm speaking from experience. 

Before you embark on your weight loss journey, make sure you know why you want to lose the weight and how the weight piled onto your body.  Two to one it has nothing to do with food but the fact you're stuffing your emotions for various reasons.  Get to the root of the issue so you can be free from it once and for all!

Personal note on extreme dieting

I struggled with my weight as a kid and teenager.  I weighed 220 lbs. when I entered the 9th grade.  It was a miserable time for me.  Not only was I picked on by kids in my high school, certain family members picked on me as well.  This was much worse.  I mean, you're supposed to be able to count on your family.  I found out that's not always the case.

Anyway, I did some extreme dieting.  At the end of my sophomore year of high school I decided to do something about my weight.  I bought a workout outfit and began to workout 7-days a week.  I cut out junk food such as chips, hot dogs, candy, ice cream, fast food, and other unhealthy foods.  I asked my mom to buy me salad and fruit which is what I ate for the entire summer.  I also took diet pills.  I used my sister's rowing machine that was collected dust in the basement.  Fast forward to the beginning year of junior high, and I was 40 pounds lighter.  I still had more weight to drop, and I still got picked on but not as much.  Eventually, the kids stopped picking on me.

I continued to work on dropping weight.  I cut my calories to 500 per day and continued to workout 7-days a week.  I also dabbled with bulimia.  This is where you eat a lot of food then throw it up.  Except, I wasn't eating a lot of food -- I would throw up the 500 calories that I ate.  I called myself "a bulimic with an anorexic twist since I worked out 7-days a week.  I reached my goal weight of 120 lbs.  I felt better and looked good but I was ruining the inside of my body.  And, family members who picked on me for being fat now wondered why I was such a picky eater -- go figure!

The bottom line is that if you want to lose weight get to the "root" of the issue.  I lost 100 lbs. only to gain 60 lbs. of it back.  How did this happen?  I didn't work on the inside.  If you don't like who are or have low self-esteem, it won't matter if you lose the weight.  It will creep back on one pound at a time.  Get down and dirty to figure out "why" you carry the weight.

The good news is that I took of the 60 lbs. and then some because I realized that I had a lot "demons" to deal with it, most of which stemmed from my dysfunctional childhood.  That's not a shocker.  Most families are dysfunctional.  The bottom line is that I like the way I look, and I don't care what other people think.  One hundred fifteen to one hundred twenty pounds is comfortable for me.  I like the way I look and that's what matters most!