From MarieLynn, Age 35 - 06/16/02 - IP#: 67.82.119.xxx Click here to reply
My daughter is 13 almost 14 years old. She is a very active cheerleader dancer and swimmer but when she hits the off season shes gains a little bit of weight (no more than 10 lbs) Anyway Laurie is 5'7" and a half and she weighs about 141 I know she is at a good weight but she doesnt like it. She has very skinny friends who all weigh about 120 at the most and wear size 3 jeans in juniors my daughter wears a size 7. I tried to explain to her that she is not overweight that she doesnt need to diet anymore but she wont listen. She has bough Slimfast with her own money and she can NEVER stop looking at the scale or the mirror. She really wants to lose weight before she enters high school, but most of it is still that baby fat. Please give me some advice i don't know if i should just let her diet or make her stop because i dont want her to ruin herself. Does anyone have any safe diets that could help her? She would like to weigh 120
Reply from Christine, Age 16 - 06/22/02 - IP#: 68.100.130.xxx I agree that you shouldn't forbid her to diet. My parents did this to me, and they just became the enemy. I would do all kinds of things to hide my dieting from them, which ended up hurting me in the long run. Maybe you could compromise with your daughter, and she could lose a little weight, but not 20lbs. Just a thought!
Reply from Debbie, Age 14 - 06/22/02 - IP#: 152.163.205.xxx my suggestion is to stop telling her she is perfect. my mom used to do this and it only made me want to be skinnier because no matter what she said, i still felt like she was just sayn that b/c she was my mom. tell her that if she ants to loose some weight that you guys could do it together. go to the gym or for walks together. try to get her mind off the scale and onto spending some time with her mom. my mom and i have been doing this and we r alot closer and we support each other when we have setbacks. i hope ive helped a lil bit.
Reply from Dani, Age 17 - 06/20/02 - IP#: 24.169.204.xxx Listen, you need to kepe persisting that she is perfect the way she is, peer pressure always make people feel different about themselfs! I am the same height ans weight, if she goes down to 120 she will be very underweight which is dangerous! I am 5'8 and 143 pounds and I wear a size 9. She is perfect the way she is, I just do a 10 min excercize every night to tone my body. If you would like to chat more or have her chat with someone she same "body size" maybe I can help! Tell her to keep her head up! here is my e-mail: WhirlGirl101@Yahoo.com
Reply from clare, Age 17 - 06/17/02 - IP#: 195.92.67.xxx Hi MarieLynn You can't stop your daughter from trying to lose weight and it is almost impossible to convince her that she doesn't need to lose weight (I know this cos my mum is always telling me I don't need to lose weight but I think I do) What you can do is make sure she knows that to diet isn't the good thing to do but to eat a healthy diet is good. There is a difference here. To diet is to cut back on foods with the intention of losing weight. To eat a healthy diet is to ensure that you are eating a balanced diet with the correct nutrients to ensure the best health possible, and be eating healthily your daughter may lose weight. You could suggest to your daughter finding out about good nutrition and work together to try and ensure that you both are eating healthily. In my opinion this would work better than telling her not to diet and that she doesn't need to lose weight. If she is like a lot of teenagers (and I'm by no means saying that we are all like this) if somebody forbids her to do something she will be resentful of that and go out of her way to prove you wrong and that she can still lose weight when told not to. She should be eating 3 meals a day, plus 8 glasses of water and if she is still hungry she should snack on fruit, carrot/celery sticks or low fat crackers. She should try to eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg each day and stick to foods that have less than 5grams of fat per serving in them.
Reply from Kate, Age 14 - 06/17/02 - IP#: 203.9.148.xxx I'm sorry, but i don't have a diet. All advice i could add is, to tell her not to diet, but just to maybe do some more exercise, because if she exercises when she doesn't have cheerleading, she won't put on weight. Also whenever you start saying things like, 'your not fat' and 'its just baby fat' A barrier just forms in her head, making her think 'mums lying'. (trust me, my mum used to say the same things to me)
