Dieting is a topic many teens are talking about. Whether it has to do with how you want to treat yourself personally or for the purpose of sports, it’s something that has crossed many of our minds. Is dieting really worth the effort, though?

Going on a diet can lead to a healthier and better lifestyle. It can help you maintain a healthy weight, and it also comes with a lot of benefits, such as lowering the risk of getting certain illnesses. It decreases risks of diabetes, and going on a diet can cause you to have more energy and be more happy in general.

Kylie Wolf is a soccer player at Ripon High. Her coaches, Lopez and Corso, don’t force healthy eating on their players, but they definitely encourage eating good before a game.

“They tell us not to eat Pizza Plus before games,” Wolf stated. “If I eat bad before a game, my stomach starts to hurt, I get tired more frequently, and I get super bad stomach cramps.”

Zoe Barba is a JV volleyball player, and her coach, Coach Ceja, also doesn’t care that much about what her players eat off the court, but she wants them to not eat bad before a game. Although some coaches don’t necessarily tell their players to eat healthy, some make the choice themselves to not eat junk food.

“When I eat unhealthy, I don’t feel that motivated. My stomach begins to feel strange, and my head starts to hurt, but that rarely happens,” Barba said.

Although dieting can help us, it can also cause harm. Going on certain diets can cause a lack of nutrients that aren’t being received based on what we eat. If you go on an extreme diet, you can risk not getting enough calories that your body needs to function. Low-fat diets can also be bad because you aren’t getting enough fats, which make up 30% of our total calories.