My daughter is 11 years old, 4' 5'', and 105 pounds. She gained 20 of those pounds in the last month, since we raised her antipsychotic dosage, and I'm worried about her. She is a carnivore, loves junk food, and her eyes don't naturally converge, so a lot of physical activity just isn't pleasant for her. She just wants to sit around and read and eat.

I'm 5' 6 1/2", and 125 pounds. I'm very active and mostly vegan, and when I'm stressed or sad I can't eat, so it's sometimes difficult for me to keep weight on.

I'm so used to trying to add protein, fat, and calories for myself, and trying to eat as often as possible, that it's just way out of my normal habits to try to help my daughter do the opposite.

Any ideas?

That's a difficult question. I'd work around it by at first adjusting her meals. I would make her home-made junk food (let's take hamburgers and fries for example), and start adding fresh vegetables to it. After a short while, I'd replace the beef patty with a chicken patty (and end up replacing it with a soy patty in the end) while also reducing the fries portion.

The gist of it is that she musn't be able to tell the difference between the taste of her meals. That's why you need to slowly introduce substitutes and healthier nom noms into her current diet.

I'd also suggest buying fresh fruit (different kinds), wash it for her and place it next to her when she's reading or doing something. That way she'll figure out which fruit she really likes and eat that instead of crisps, cookies, whatnot as a filler.

Another thing concerns drinks - if she drinks a lot, she's probably drinking beverages like 7up, or Gatorade, or whatnot. If she doesn't like plain water, just mix water with her favourite juice (or tea). At first, most of the glass should consist of juice with a tiny bit of water (make sure that the juice has a high percentage of fruit content), and then just slowly decrease the quantity of juice and add more water.

Introduce different kinds of salads and dressings as a side-dish during the main course. Use red and green lettuce, tomatoes, beans, bits of cooked potatoes, light yoghurt dressings, vinegar, pumpkin oil, olive oil. Anything you can think of. She's bound to enjoy something.

In general, try to eat out as little as possible (especially take-aways), just about any food you order over the phone / internet is quite fatty, because they use lower-quality ingredients and oils.

P.S. Olive oil. For everything.

Hope I managed to give you some tips or guidelines on how to approach the issue. Telling your child she is fat and that she needs to lose weight doesn't usually help at all. If she likes it, she's going to keep doing it, so you need to subtly change the meals she's consuming.

As far as activities go, I'd suggest trying to take her for a 30 minute stroll (or more, if she's up to it) every day (or every other day). Slow-paced walking is just as good for her.

I remember reading Annah wrote that she lost a summountable amount of weight in one of her posts on eating something like tins of tuna or salmon fort breakfast and boiled eggs thats all. this is what i found scouting around below

Topic: How much muscle mass did you lose in your transition?


i lost two hundred pounds in body fat. Not sure about muscle mass tho



Quote from: Cyndigurl45 on November 28, 2011, 08:06:35 am
OMG that's off the hook incredible.......

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it lol. I took the diet plan from Christian Bale's "The Machinist."

Had one egg for breakast.
Can of tuna in water for lunch
Salmon or Tuna for dinner
Apple for snack.

Well...he only ate one can of tuna and an apple a day. But yeah, I wasn't that adventurous lol

hope that helps also google tuna,salmon and eggs as part of protein diet for weight loss,and " Being overweight can be a sign that one is living in the flesh."


Kristyn

QuoteI'd also suggest buying fresh fruit (different kinds), wash it for her and place it next to her when she's reading or doing something. That way she'll figure out which fruit she really likes and eat that instead of crisps, cookies, whatnot as a filler.

That's a great idea. She actually loves most produce, but for years I'd been trying to encourage her to eat more and gain weight. I'll try making fresh food unobtrusively available to her.

QuoteAnother thing concerns drinks - if she drinks a lot, she's probably drinking beverages like 7up, or Gatorade, or whatnot. If she doesn't like plain water, just mix water with her favourite juice (or tea). At first, most of the glass should consist of juice with a tiny bit of water (make sure that the juice has a high percentage of fruit content), and then just slowly decrease the quantity of juice and add more water.

This would be pretty useful, except that we don't drink anything but water most of the time. She drinks a glass or two of fortified soymilk a day, plus a coffee mug's worth of rite aid V8 on most days. She says she drinks juice with breakfast at school, and chocolate cowmilk with lunch. I recently asked them to please not give her more than one tray (apparently she'd been eating multiple entrees and skipping the sides).

QuoteIntroduce different kinds of salads and dressings as a side-dish during the main course. Use red and green lettuce, tomatoes, beans, bits of cooked potatoes, light yoghurt dressings, vinegar, pumpkin oil, olive oil. Anything you can think of. She's bound to enjoy something.

I never think of salads. They're easy to make and she loves them.

QuoteIn general, try to eat out as little as possible (especially take-aways), just about any food you order over the phone / internet is quite fatty, because they use lower-quality ingredients and oils.

We eat out about once every month or two, and she understands that it's special and not a smart thing to do very often.

QuoteHope I managed to give you some tips or guidelines on how to approach the issue. Telling your child she is fat and that she needs to lose weight doesn't usually help at all. If she likes it, she's going to keep doing it, so you need to subtly change the meals she's consuming.

She already thinks she's fat, so I've not used that word with her. I'm so nervous about her developing some kind of eating disorder. When I talk about eating and exercising habits, I try to couch it all in terms of health and energy and general happiness. I try to make clear that eating better food and staying active makes you feel good.

As far as activities go, I'd suggest trying to take her for a 30 minute stroll (or more, if she's up to it) every day (or every other day). Slow-paced walking is just as good for her.
This is kinda what we're limited to. I try to use stairs, get off buses a stop or two early, and take her to nearby parks and trails pretty often. She loves to swim, but I've lately had problems in locker rooms, so I need to strategize before we go back to any pools.

And Kristyn that's probably great advice but I don't keep eggs or most other animal products in my house. I'm not super-uptight about it (I do let my daughter bring home canned fish or clam chowder occasionally, and we eat honey), but I get my protein from beans, tofu, tvp, flax, soymilk, and nuts and seeds. My daughter eats meat twice a day at school, and at least one weekend a month when she goes to respite. We both get bloodwork regularly, and her serum protein is decently high. Mine is too low.

Now I'm getting thinky. Thanks guys, I have something to work with now. I've never in my life tried to lose weight or help anyone else do so, so this is all new to me.