This content is for informational and educational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider.
Last Updated on August 18, 2025 by Grace Oluchi
Fitness and diet for teenagers is highly important.
If you’re a parent reading this right now, know that a good eating plan, and a simple exercise routine, can go a long way to helping them grow better.
It’s all in the habits, and practices.
But it doesn’t have to be complicated or dramatic; teenagers don’t have to start some intense diet or exercise routine, just something simple, yet effective…
And healthy.
It’s not the time for teens to adopt sedentary habits, neither is it a good idea. For the sake of your teen’s health, don’t entertain couch behavior.
According to Kids Health , regular exercise can help teens learn better at school, lower the risk of depression, and feelings of anxiety, and increase their self-esteem.
It also helps build strong bones, and muscle, keeps the heart healthy, and increase a person’s flexibility.
This is kind of the best time to learn about fitness, and diet for teenagers, and also introduce them to it.
And if you’re a teen reading this, having a fitness and diet plan now, can help you build healthy habits that’ll follow you through their life. But, it doesn’t mean you stop having fun or living your life, it’s actually the opposite.
It’ll help you live right and healthy way, which can help you age better.
📋 Table of Contents
Fitness For Teenagers: safe and effective exercise
Team sports is a good way to get into fitness as a teenager, they can help you stay active,and healthy.
For example, playing volleyball, basketball, football or soccer, tennis, swimming, or other types of sports are good sports to play.
Team sports are beneficial, it can help teenagers mix, and know how to flow with their peers, and along the line, learn how to work as a team, which can be helpful now, and even later in the future.
I Don’t Play Sports
It’s okay. There are other ways to exercise, and stay active. You can start swimming, cycling, running, brisk walking or jogging. But, remember to go at your own pace, you don’t need to overstrain yourself.
Strength training
It is important to strength train, because it can help you feel good, and confident about yourself.
Bodyweight exercises like push-ups, air squats, lunges, wall push-ups, sumo squats, deep squats, planks, are exercises you can do, even in your bedroom.
What about lifting weights?
You definitely can lift weights, if you want to, they can help increase your muscle mass, and make you stronger.
However, you don’t have to grab the heaviest weights you come across, just pick the right weights that will still help you build muscles.
Lifting heavy weights is not particularly necessary for teenagers to stay fit, unless you’re aiming for something like building defined muscles, or getting jacked.
Which is something your parents should know about, including your doctor.
If your goal is to get bigger arms, legs, build your biceps, chest, and so on, you have to do progressive overload. It’s how you’re going to grow your muscles and achieve your body goals.
Fitness for teenagers (a small advice)
It is highly important to start small, especially if you are new to exercise.
As a teenager you’ve got the energy, no doubt, but it doesn’t mean you can’t injure yourself if you overdo things or overstrain your body.
As awesome as it is to workout, you have to practice safety, by setting small goals, including the duration of your workouts.
For example, you don’t need to start sprinting for 20 minutes straight, 5 to 10 minutes is okay. Or jogging for an hour, you can start with a 10 to 15 minutes jog. And so on.
The main thing is to start, and gradually increase the time frame of your workouts, and the intensity.
You’ve got the time, the beauty of all this is that you’re starting!
Eating healthy
The first step is to not let teenagers get used to eating sugary foods and drinks, high calorie foods like fast food burgers and fries.
Their breakfast, lunch or dinner shouldn’t be filled with oily foods and unhealthy fats.
Foods like:
- Rice
- Chicken
- Tuna
- Salmon
- Sardines
- Whole grain bread
- Yoghurt
- Boiled or scrambled eggs
- Sweet potatoes
- Milk, yoghurt, cheese
- Olive oil to fry or cook some foods
- Avocados for healthy fats
- Oatmeal
- Whole grain cereals
- Beans
- Lentils
- Apples, bananas, oranges and berries
- Broccoli
- Carrots
- Bell peppers
- Spinach
- Nuts like almonds, and walnuts
- Seeds like flaxseeds, and chia seeds
Diet for teenagers (healthy eating habits)
Apart from eating healthy foods, there are other things, which need attention, because they matter too.
1 . They shouldn’t have sugary drinks with meals all the time. Water is a better and healthier option for liquids when eating meals. Skip the juice, or carbonated drinks, and drink water with meals.
2 . Don’t wait till you’re too thirsty before drinking water. Studies suggest that children and teenagers drink about 6 to 8 cups of water every day.
Although things can affect how much water you drink such as weather conditions, level of physical activity, and weight.
3 . Also, be present when eating, this is very important for teens. It can help them build a good relationship with food.
4 . Put fruits and veggies as side dishes with your main meal. Or eat them as dessert.
5 . It’s okay to indulge foods that you enjoy. You can visit your favorite fast food restaurants, get your fries, burgers, pizzas, and other snacks you enjoy.
The important thing is that you don’t make them your daily diet, and learn to portion how much you eat.
The main thing
It’s important for teenagers to eat healthy, and move their bodies. Whether it’s through sports or physical activity. The food they eat, and how their level of fitness plays a big role in their growth, and health.
Don’t eat too foods that are high in sugar and calories all the time. They mcause health problems like diabetes, heart problems, including gaining excess weight.
It is imperative for you to have a fitness routine, and a healthy diet, so you can maintain a healthy weight, and live healthier.
