My friends tease me about being fat – I really do want to lose weight, but don’t know where to start. What should I do?

First of all,its important to want to lose weight for your own reasons, not because of what others say or think. As your body is still growing and developing,, ensuring your daily food intake includes enough of all the essential nutrients for growth and maturation is also important, so getting some professional advice is a very good idea. . A combination of cutting back on calorie intake and increasing your level of exercise, is almost always the best way to lose weight and keep it off. To control calorie intake, and to ensure a nutritious balanced diet whilst your body is still growing, a moderate intake of all foods should be the basis of your diet. High fat foods (more than 30% of total calories from fats) are the most calorie dense, so take extra care to limit these. Choose whole-grains, vegetables, fruit, lean meat, fish, poultry without skin and low-fat dairy products, to satisfy appetite, and get maximum nutrition.

Set your self some exercise goals, Choose activities you enjoy, and gradually increase the duration and intensity of exercise. Your goal should be to work up to 60 minutes of physical activity a day, but this does not have to be all at one time. Short 10 minute bouts of activity throughout the day are just as good as one prolonged session. . Watching TV, video game and computer time is not going to burn many calories, so aim to limit ‘screen time’ to no more than one per day.

Involving your family in your dietary and lifestyle changes will also improve your chances of success in your weight loss efforts.

I need to lose weight before a party, which is in 3 weeks time. Can you recommend a diet for me?

There is no ‘quick fix’ to losing weight. An intensive effort to lose weight in three weeks might make you help you to start taking control of your body weight, but for this to be really successful, it’s important to plan how you will continue to manage your weight after this period. If you slide back into old eating habits, the weight is likely to creep back on. So as well as aiming to lose weight for the party, think about how you are going to maintain your success, afterwards. For example, start to establish some daily habits which have been proven to help in long-term weight management, such as always starting the day with breakfast; including at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per day; eating fried or high fat foods no more than twice a week, including plenty of high fibre foods (aim for 25-30 grammes dietary fibre per day) in your daily diet.

Are detox diets safe?

Every teenager needs a varied and balanced diet to ensure their body is getting enough of the fifty essential nutrients required for healthy growth and development. Detox diets which involve fasting and severe food restriction, cannot provide this and may in fact, slow down your metabolism, making it harder to keep the weight off or lose weight later. Also remember, there is currently no scientific proof that these diets help rid the body of ‘toxins’ or speed the process of weight loss.

I need to lose weight quickly – can a diet pill help?

Diet pills promise to ‘burn’, ‘block’, ‘flush’ or eliminate fat from the system. However, ingredients in many pills have been found to be harmful to health - amphetamines, for instance, are highly addictive and ephedra has been found to have many undesirable and serious side effects. Independent research into some of the substances commonly found in these pills, for example caffeine, dextrose, guar gum has not found any of them to be effective in weight loss or appetite suppression.