Fifteen year olds no longer have nice figures

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am 14 years old and a girl. Over the past year, I have noticed that I have gotten chubbier and gained more and more weight. I used to be thin, but now my belly sticks out a ton (so I can't even see my feet) and my thighs are very big. I can't help it, but I always feel like I have to eat, and I am eating a ton. My mom doesn't say anything, but every month practically I gain weight. Any suggestions?

If you're really always hungry -- if you eat something, and feel hungry a half hour later, say -- then here's what helped me as a teen: I stopped eating anything with sugar or starch in it for a month. I did not count calories. I ate whenever I was hungry. I ate lots of lean protein (deli meat, chicken, tuna, hamburger without bun, seitan, tofu), scrambled eggs, string cheese, avocados, ALL the vegetables cooked in butter that I wanted (except for potatoes).

It fixed my appetite. Sugar and starch were screwing me up. I did lose weight but I never felt hungry. Maybe give it a try? There's a program called Whole30 that is super healthy that you can try.

[Anonymous]

I really think it's in sugar. There is a hell of a lot more sugar added to ALL kinds of food today than there was even 15 years ago.

Also, as long as there are idiots still reaching for "low fat" products (which could just as accurately read "high sugar" in most cases), or there are people who think cereal is a healthy breakfast... well, then the obesity crisis will continue to grow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the answer of why children and teens are heavier may lie in how we are feeding our infants. Here are a few links to articles discussing the findings that babies who are exclusively breastfed and are not exposed to solid foods until after six months tend to have lower BMIs when they are older than those who were formula fed and/or given solid foods at earlier ages. Also, the longer time a child is exclusively breastfed, the lower the chance that the child will be overweight or obese.

http://www.foodandnutritionresearch.net/index.php/fnr/article/download/1550/1418

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16902325

http://advances.nutrition.org/content/3/5/675.full

http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/6/4/1608/pdf

But formula was widely used back to the 50s, and there were far fewer overweight children in previous decades than now.

+1 And, among middle & high SES Americans, formula feeding was probably more common in the 80s than is today (or even back when today's 15-year-olds were born in 2000- 2001).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suspect that what is considered "chunky" by the average DCUM poster is probably within the normal range of a healthy weight for a given person's height. Most of the moms at my kids' school look like they haven't had a carbohydrate or a gram of fat in the last 30 years and they are often skinnier than their healthy looking daughters. I hate to think of people fat shaming a 15 year old because she weighs 125 lbs.

Both of my kids were breastfed for six months or less, have always eaten junk food in moderation, don't play sports, and went through periods during puberty where portion sizes went out the window. Small-boned DD is a size 2 and DS might weigh 120 1bs at 5'7". They might just be lucky - they didn't get that from me!

Whether or not wearing a size 2 =skinny (or even slender) depends on height, age, build & brand/cut of the clothes in question. A small boned teen girl (or adult woman, for that matter) who is below average to average height doesn't need to be really thin these days to fit into a size 2 at most stores. In fact, a girl who has a smaller build & is on the short side could easily be a bit chubby & still wear a size 2 in a lot of clothes.