There is a great lack of physical exercise among teenagers in America. This must be a great shocker to many, due to the fact that people will usually associate teenagers with eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. This lack of physical exercise is more commonly found in females between the ages of 12 and 21. The question is what is causing this generation of teenagers to be overweight? Well, there are three contributors to this nationwide problem. The first reason is fast food restaurants. The second factor is technology, which is now advancing by the second. The final reason is the teenager’s parent, and the example they are setting for them. However, what fault do teenagers have behind all this lack of physical activity?

Many people are used to associating teenagers, especially females, with having eating disorders. When a teenager has an eating disorder like bulimia, there is not a lack of physical activity, or exercise. On the contrary, there is an excessive amount of exercise being done which is not healthy in any way for your body system. Another thing that is related to this is when teenagers over do the amount of exercise or do not exercise enough. In situations like this disease can be a major side-effect. Even though he is no longer a teenager, and is not a female, Tom Hanks went from a pre-diabetic state, to actually being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. The actor says that a major what led him to developing such disease was his profession as an actor. This is because to land the parts for some roles he has had to gain a major amount of weight and for other roles he has had to lose an excessive amount. This constant shift in weight does not allow your body to produce enough insulin, which ends up leading to Type 2 Diabetes.

Due to this lack of physical activity, many teens are suffering from obesity. One reason that teens are obese is fast food restaurants. Fast food restaurants sell foods with lots of oil and a very large amount of calories. When consumed, oil and calories make your body produce fat, and as you grow older it becomes harder and harder to lose that fat. Fast food restaurants are encouraging obesity by selling all that food which is unhealthy for you and your body. These types of restaurants use the bandwagon fallacy by appealing to customers and their appetite. Another contributor is the celebrity promoting the meal. Many teens try to go on a diet and avoid these restaurants; however, some never seem to take the situation frivolously. Teens can exercise all they want but they are never going to lose weight if they keep feeding on greasy hamburgers and fries more than once a week. Truth is if you consume more calories than you can burn up you will become obese.

Another thing that is taking away time from teenagers to do exercise is technological advances. Adolescents should be out in the park playing a sport with their friends; therefore, there would not be that much obesity in the nation. Reality check; teenagers are online e-mailing half the planet, checking what pictures a celebrity posted on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, or playing overrated video games. Things like that are what also make teenagers lazy because they can do that sitting for hours or lying on their beds for a whole day. If we look back at how times were before technology developed so much and compare them to current times we will be shocked. Back in the day teenagers were outside breathing fresh air with their friends and walking around their neighborhood. Now, teens are in their rooms playing games online and “face-timing” their friends. Instead of walking through their neighborhood teens find it easy to just take virtual tour of their neighborhood online. SO, one way to get teens to exercise more is by limiting their time with any electronic devices, such as phones and video games. Instead parents should make them go out more to breathe nice clean air.

That brings me to my next point, the parents. Parent-Child relationship usually runs on the monkey see monkey do rule. If a parent does it their child will do it, and vice versa. Parental influence plays a major role in a teen’s life. Whatever example the parents set for their child, the child has a large percentage of chances to do the same. If a child does not see his/her parents exercise, the child, in this case the teen, will find no reason to do it either. A teens parents can feed on pizza and a soda every day, and even if they don’t think it will happen, their child will end up doing the same. Parents have to encourage their children to eat healthy and exercise. They can do this by helping their teen(s) with their portion control and amount of exercise everyday (which should be at least an hour a day). Parents have an impact on their child’s life from both childhood to adolescence.

Teens also should take care of themselves by having good mental health. When a teen is confident no one will make them feel less for who they are. When a teen is easily led by peer pressure their self-esteem is low, and a comment meant as a joke could be a life changing one. Teens are usually kicked off when told they are “overweight.” If the difference is not known to them they easily associate that with being obese. There is a major difference between obesity and being overweight. To be overweight is to have a more body weight, and that just means your weight may not be where it should be when related to your height. To be obese is completely different. Obesity means you have an excessive amount of body fat. Even though everyone needs a certain amount of body, an excessive amount can lead to disease like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, certain types of cancer, arthritis, and chronic kidney disease. To be considered obese males must have more than 25% of body fat and females must have at least 30% of body fat.