Wipe out the word "dieting" from your vocabulary. Eating a healthy diet is not the same as dieting. Eating a healthy diet means eating nutritious foods that your body needs for good health, while eating less nutritious foods less often. Skipping meals or following weird, unhealthy eating patterns actually can keep you from getting the nutrients you need to grow as healthy as you could be. Trying to lose weight when your body is growing and changing isn't smart, unless your doctor thinks it's a good idea and helps you with it.

You've probably heard about a lot of fad diets, which allow you to only eat a few specific foods or only drink certain liquids. Fad diets are usually popular for a little while and then go out of style. They may be advertised as a quick way to lose weight, but most are not balanced or healthy in the long run. Many are not effective, and some are not even safe, especially for growing bodies. Fad diets may make you lose weight while you are on the diet, but as soon as you stop the diet and start eating normally again, you usually gain all the weight back. Also, the weight lost on a fad diet is mostly loss of normal body water that comes right back when you stop the fad diet. Some fad diets can even cause you to lose some of your precious muscle, which doesn't come back when you regain weight!

Eating a healthy diet is a way of living, one that keeps your body healthy and working, and not just a way to look thinner or something you ever finish or go off of.

So what do you do if you think you are looking chunky? If you feel that your weight is not right for you, talk to your parents, your doctor, or an adult you trust. They can help you figure out if you weigh too much and suggest changes you may need to make in your life. Remember to balance a healthy diet with physical activity. To maintain a healthy weight, you need to balance energy coming into your body (food) with energy going out of your body (physical activity.) For you to lose weight, your doctor may recommend making your energy unbalanced so that you take in less food and exercise more.

Your doctor may suggest you make changes to your diet so that you will be healthier. Listen to what your doctor has to say and follow his or her instructions. This kind of a diet is different than you deciding on your own to limit your food intake in unhealthy ways. Never go on a diet without talking to your doctor first.

Reasons Not To Go on a Restrictive Diet Without a Doctor's Approval:

• Diets don't make you physically fit.
• Diets slow down your metabolism (the way your body converts food and oxygen into energy).
• Diets make you sluggish.
• Diets make you crave food.
• Diets confuse your body systems.
• Diets can be dangerous.