How Can I Help My Daughter Lose Weight?

Whatever you do don't focus on her weight or make her feel overweight (really that weight with how tall she is is not that bad at all), you do not want to create an eating disorder. What you can do is focus on being healthy as a family, eat good foods all together, start walking after dinner as a family and doing activities like biking or hiking on the weekends. Don't frame it as her needing to lose weight, just as the whole family needing to live a healthier lifestyle.

Don’t keep junk food in the house. No cakes, crackers, pretzels, chips, ice cream, candy bars etc. If it’s not there she can’t eat it.

Make sure she has protein for breakfast. It can be a protein shake, egg, or plain Greek yogurt (I add a little honey to mine)

Make a fruit smoothie but load it up with spinach too (my daughter and I drink one daily). They are very filling.

Don’t eat after dinner. If she wants something, have a cup of tea.

Go for a walk every night after dinner.

Take a dance class, martial arts class, yoga class or whatever floats her boat.

Fyi... My cousin lost over 100 lbs through weight watchers. She said being accountable to someone (ie. knowing she would be weighed weekly) motivated her to lose the weight. She said she also didn’t know how to eat healthy until WW taught her. She told me she really didn’t have a concept of portion sizes.

Tell her this is 12 week plan. After 12 weeks I’m betting she will be so happy with the results she’ll want to keep it up and by then she will have new habits.

Good luck!

Change the eating and exercising habits of the whole family. Get rid of all bad food and drinks. Support her!

Don't concentrate on weight. Instead concentrate on good habits. Enlist her help to plan good meals and snacks for the entire family. Tackle this as something you all need to improve and then do it.

It's a family affair. You don't want to say, "I can eat pretzels and you can't because you're fat." (I know you wouldn't say that - but that's how kids hear it! That turns into misery and poor body image.) It cannot be about deprivation - it has to be about what food is in the house, how it's prepared, and what the goals are for everyone. She didn't get to be 188 pounds overnight, and she won't take it off overnight either. It has to be something you all do together and not something you have decided she needs to do.

It also should be about overall health and not what it says on the scale. It should be about muscle - so what does she like to do? Bike ride? Dance? Martial arts? Walk on the beach? Do the town clean-up for Earth Day? Walk to a friend's house or home from school instead of getting a ride every time?

Some people do well with a FitBit or other step tracker that reminds you to get up and move. That won't work if it's a punishment, but if everyone is on board with something like that, or any type of pedometer, it can raise awareness. But it's really important that teen girls not feel singled out or feel that their worth depends on their dress size or what the boys think of them. Make sure that you counter the messages she's getting all the time from the people around her, from movies/TV and from society in general that a woman's appeal is determined by her shape and size.

The first thing I would do would be to have a complete medical workup on her to see if there may be any underlying issues.

I would NOT be telling her she needs to lose weight. You know she already knows that and she needs support. This could wind up being a serious issue that last throughout her lifetime.

Focus on what you are doing. Go for an after dinner walk, don't keep junk food in your house, make healthy choices.

The weight won't come off fast. She has to choose to make a lifestyle change.

Honestly... I've not been in your position but I'm a believer in healthy choices, exercise and moderation.

Don't buy any junk food or soda.
Water really is best - but milk isn't bad - limit juice - it's just a lot of sugar in liquid form.
Have healthy snacks on hand - fruit, veggies and salad.
Limit fast food to no more than a few times per month.
Watch the sugar and carbs intake - have more protein like eggs, nuts, tuna or low fat cheeses.
Try to get a family walk started - around the block or trails in a park - at least weekly - maybe more often when the weather gets better.
A family bike ride works too.
Do some Geo-chacheing together - it's a great way to travel around doing little treasure hunts.
Do more outside.
The thing about screen watching is - you pretty much have to sit to do it.
So - by limiting screen time - you limit sit time - which really helps.
Sign her up for taekwondo - some parents will sign up along with their kids - it's a great workout for everyone.

Well, for starters - you do NOT tell her she needs to lose weight. You don't need to shame her.

Start walking with her. Go for walks after dinner. Talk with her.

Prepare healthy meals for her. Get her eating less fried foods and more healthy foods. YOU are the one that prepares meals, right? So YOU need to make the change...

No more soda. Water, tea, etc.
No more fried foods.
No more fast food.
Make her lunches for school. And if you work outside the home? Make YOUR lunch too. BE The change you want to see in her.

YOU need to be the role model. Get her walking. Get her active. And YOU need to do it with her. If you have a dog? YOU BOTH walk the dog and start making the walks LONGER after each week.

don't focus on her weight. make sure you are paying way more attention to her positive attributes and not making her weight the main thrust of your conversations with her.

if you really want to help her (and not just *fix* a problem) then the entire family needs to focus on healthy eating and healthy movement. if you single her out for a diet or exercise regimen she's going to feel marginalized and it will backfire.
khairete
S.

Get more active...the whole family. Meet with a RD...I am one. If she drinks soda have all the family cut it out. Play for an hour a day...don’t make it excercise. Message me for more.

If you make sure she is eating the right stuff (fuel for her body as opposed to empty calories) and plenty of water to stay hydrated, then she will lose weight naturally so long as she gets plenty of exercise.

The key is knowing which foods are healthy - seeing a nutritionist/dietician can help.

I wouldn't make a big deal and I wouldn't single her out. Often unhealthy choices are reflective of the family - not just one family member.

For kids and teens with weight issues, often there's an underlying issue that needs to be addressed. In that case, seeing a counselor can be helpful.

You have some good responses. I know from my own life, it really helped me when I concentrated on foods that I needed to make sure I ate every day (which were things from three food groups: cruciferous (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage...), leafy greens (spinach, kale, bok choy..) and berries (blueberries, blackberries, strawberries...). By adding a cup or two of those foods every day for health, I wasn't as hungry to eat so much of the other bad stuff. Of course, if there's an eating disorder going on, this may not work. But I hear the Star Wars trainers got their actors ready for the movies by eating that way (plus fish) and working out every day. It's helped me to think of it as training to be a Jedi, rather than doing something healthy for it's own sake...