How do you handle a "fat" teen?

[marysam57]

Have you ever told your teen he or she is fat? What dieting tips do you use to help a teen slim down?

[IntlCogitator]

I would definitely stray away from any sort of "weight loss" buzz words. This will likely put more pressure on the teen and can often have the reverse affect-weight gain and more attachments to food because we feel like we cannot have it (being a young person in a weight-loss obsessed American, I have definitely seen this happen).

Instead, I would keep very good and tasty but very health options around the house for the whole family. Eat a healthy dinner together. Prepare the same food for your teen as you do yourself.

Lastly, rather than suggesting your teen exercise more often, recommend being active together. Invite them to yoga or to your kick boxing class. Suggest exercise or even activity as simple as walking around the neighborhood or walking the dog after a meal to avoid the overeating that often results from lingering over leftovers at the table.

However, if your teen comes to you and voices unhappiness with their weight, recommend yoga and healthy eating options. Do not just recommend that they find a diet or go to ediets.com (please don't do this). This sets the wrong mindset for conscious eaters. If someone is going to BEGIN a healthy regiment for the first time due to unhappiness about their weight, they should not have such a compartmentalized mindset that these diets often entail.

Rather, they should just start thinking about healthy and natural options for the first time. They will likely be surprised how much they like these options and will likely make the switch to a more healthy lifestyle and consumer consciousness. Though they might loose weight more gradually this way than with a traditional diet, the switch to a healthy lifestyle with moderate activity and natural foods (lots of fruits and vegetables and grilled meat and some whole grains) will provide a long term answer to their weight issue rather than the temporary loss of a few pounds and the inception of an incorrect mindset about food and health.


It is so important that this issue is addressed in the right kind of way. I have dealt with it in my life and as a young person and have seen so many other young people struggle in American-even to the point of death. This is something now to be taken lightly. I am serious. So many people are so unhappy for the rest of their lives about their weight and take the wrong approach to food and exercise. This unhappiness and poisonous mindset takes years to recede and reform to normal thinking. So even if your problems with weightloss are not physically unhealthy, they can make you psychologically unhealthy. We can easily become prisoners of our own thoughts about this and it is important that a teen does not develop that mindset at this age....it could intern their well being for the rest of their lives.

I hope this helped.

[mbipper]

Having struggled with an eating disorder when I was younger, I would have to STRONGLY agree with the last comment. I wouldn't even use the word DIET!

I have a friend who has her 11-year old daughter on a diet and when she let her go to a buffet dinner with her grandparents she left saying, "I just ate everything I am not allowed to."

When asked why, she couldn't answer. But, I know why! We all do that when we are on a diet. When we feel like we are being deprived of what we love and we look around and everyone else is eating it, It makes us mad and we BINGE!

Teens and dieting is a touchy subject. I would talk to your pediatrician before going to any drastic measures.