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Losing Weight the Wrong Way

Hollywood pals, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan, have dramatically lost weight.

Weight Loss

Losing weight in a hurry sounds like a great idea, but quick-fix methods (like starvation) are bad news for your body. Take a look at Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie's dramatic weight loss. No one's sure how they lost the weight, but it's been making headlines for the past few months. Lindsay recently collapsed halfway through a spinning session (bicycle workout) and campaigns have been set up to help these Hollywood chicks gain back some weight! When it comes to weight loss, there's a right way and a wrong way, so before you risk your health, get educated on what NOT to do.

The Wrong Way - Skipping Meals

Teens who starve themselves may make it through to the end of the week - and maybe even lose a pound or two - but most will end up suffering from health problems. Your body needs a certain number of calories each day to function properly. If you skip a meal to lose weight, then you may end up overeating at your next meal to make up for those missing calories. And you'll be too tired to focus on your schoolwork or attend volleyball practice because you'll just be thinking about food and how loudly your stomach is grumbling!

The Wrong Way - Low-Calorie Diets

If you're on a low-calorie diet, then you'll be restricting yourself to certain types of foods, which won't allow you to get enough vitamins and minerals. These types of diets may cause rapid weight loss, but most of it is water and muscle mass, not fat, which is what you want to lose. Plus, you probably won't be able to keep the weight off. Weight loss from low-calorie diets can cause serious health problems in teens, such as bad breath, diarrhea, nausea and even hair loss.

The Wrong Way - Diet Pills

Dietary supplements claim to melt the pounds away, but what they're actually doing is increasing your heart rate. Most diet pills contain laxatives, which cause bowel movements, and amphetamine-like herbs, which speed up the heart and nervous system and raise your blood pressure to dangerous levels.

The Wrong Way - Forced Vomiting

Some teens think that barfing out what they eat will prevent weight gain, but this is one of the worst ways to try and lose weight. Repeated vomiting will cause dehydration and swelling in the salivary glands. As well, stomach acid will damage your esophagus (the tube from the mouth to the stomach) and cause tooth decay. Forced vomiting is also the first sign of the eating disorder called bulimia.