Setting a safe calorie deficit for a teenager
Your teenager is still growing, so their body needs more calories than an adult, not fewer. Never put a teen on an adult diet; their doctor sets the target, and Burnie just logs the maths.
You watch your teenager worry about weight. The easy thought is, 'Let me put them on my diet.' Please wait. A teen is not a small adult. Their body is busy building bone, muscle, and height. Cut calories too hard and you cut their growing fuel. This short read is about the safe way to set a teen's deficit. One rule first: the doctor owns the number, not the app.
A teen burns more than you think
Teens need extra food because they are still growing. The American Academy of Pediatrics says it clearly. The body needs more calories in early adolescence than at any other time of life. Boys this age need about 2,800 calories a day. Girls need about 2,200. That is more than many adults eat. So a teen's deficit can never start from a starving base. The maths is the same as yours, food calories minus burn. But the base is bigger, because the body is building.
A teenager can just copy mum or dad's diet to lose weight.
mostly falsemostly false
An adult's cut can starve a growing body. Your teen is still adding height, bone, and muscle, and that work burns extra calories. A hard adult-style deficit takes away the fuel that builds the body. The right teen deficit protects those growth calories first, then trims the rest. That judgement belongs to a doctor who knows your teen, not a copied meal plan. Careful teen weight work is also family work, done together, not alone.
How a teen's weight is judged (not like yours)
What a careful family does
The bottom line
A teenager is still building their body, so they need more food than you do, about 2,800 calories for boys and 2,200 for girls each day. Never copy an adult diet onto a growing teen. Take them to a paediatrician first, ask for family-based care, and log the food together in Burnie. Burnie is the notebook. The doctor owns the plan.