Teens Get Healthy (And How They Did It!)

Last month WW, formerly known as Weight Watchers, sparked controversy when it rolled out a weight-loss app for children and teens. On one side, those who believe that putting young people on diets can lead to disordered eating; on the other, those who say there should be more tools to help kids and families at a time when childhood obesity affects 20 percent of Americans ages 12 to 19. Missing in the debate? How teens feel. So People talked to four who used different approaches to improve their health.

- Stephanie Emma Pfeffer And Julie Mazziotta

Mason Hicks, 17

CONROE, TEXAS

As early as kindergarten Mason Hicks remembers overeating. “I would wake up and have four bowls of sugary cereal,” he says. By his sophomore year he was 6 ft. tall and 350 lbs. “I never felt good about myself,” he says. “I accepted I would be big my entire life.” A kind word from the right person changed his perspective. “I told my football coach that my knees were hurting, and he said it might be because of my weight,” Hicks says. He reduced his portions while experimenting with intermittent fasting (waiting 16 hours after dinner before his next meal), which he discovered through a Google search. He also ate more lean proteins and veggies and began power lifting. When he returned to school for his junior year—140 lbs. thinner—people didn’t recognize him. “I kept getting called the new kid,” he says. “That was incredible—but it was also heartbreaking to see how people change the way they treat you just because of how you look.” Being overweight as a teen, he says, is “one of the hardest things. Now I feel great!”

Kaley Worst, 17

CADILLAC, MICH.