Reply to "Health panel urges interventions for children and teens with high BMI"

Forum Index » Tweens and Teens

Reply to ""Health panel urges interventions for children and teens with high BMI""

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The way to disrupt the constant hunger is to work. Teens should be busy working or volunteering so that they aren't always eating. Mine works a FT summer job and does power washing on the weekends. He eats regular meals and has no time for snacking.[/quote]

Mine could not be busier-- after school activities, two sports (one travel).  Doesn't get home from school/camp until after 3 or 4, leaves for sports most night at 6.  Still finds time to snack and overeat.  (See all threads above about how they get fed at so many of these activities).

All these parents with kids who don't have eating issues are so certain it wouldn't happen to their kids.  You are not better parents or better at helping your kids be healthy: you are lucky your kid has good genes.
[/quote]

If you know he’s overeating outside the home, feed him less at home.  Have absolutely zero junk available at home.  You can only control what you can control, but it sounds like you want to just throw up your hands and blame it all on bad luck or bad genes.[/quote]

You're so smart-- you have all the answers-- no junk food and feed a kid less, why didn't I think about that?

Such smug parenting. I seriously -- truly-- hope you never have a child struggle with their weight.  Though, I kind of wish more of you did because then you'd understand how hard it is.[/quote]

Just do the math. Lower the calories and they will lose weight. You don't even need to do extra activity although it's always good to move more.

It's pretty easy to control a child's food choices up until they earn their own money (or someone gifts them a lot of it). The parents who give their kids huge allowances then complain that they buy junk food and high calorie Starbucks drinks. Stop giving them $25/week. [/quote]

Ok, no it’s not.  Kids that have a tendency to overeat, will overeat just about anything.  You can’t have a carb free household.  They can make their own food if they want to.  Many teens have part time jobs and get money from relatives for birthday.  They can offered plenty of Starbucks without your help.  Again, a parent cannot control the food intake of a teen.  They have to want to eat less overall and say to to the junk. If they don’t want to or can’t, you cannot make them[/quote]

Go ahead. Let your 7 yr old overeat the cantaloupe. I promise it won't make her gain weight. Teens aren't getting jobs until 15 at the earliest. If you have provided 15 years of healthy foods in your home, the chance that they will become overweight after that is pretty low. [/quote]

Actually it is sky high.  Over 70% of adults are overweight.  By the time your teen is adult, chances are they will be too[/quote]

Maybe in certain demographics but not UMC teens. I work in a Title 1 school and I see those demographics every day. When I pick my kid up at his private HS, not even 1/3 of the kids are overweight. [/quote]
70% of adults of all ages are fat. 70% of college kids are not fat, but you are probably assuring your kid to be fat their entire life [b]if you let them [/b]enter their teens fat [/quote]

No one is "letting" their kids be fat.  We are all parenting in an age where unhealthy food is everywhere. Some kids' bodies know to stop at one slice of pizza at the camp pizza party, some kids crave two.  Some kids don't think about food unless it's in front of them, some kids brains are always thinking about food.  You are lucky if your kid is the former.

I am the parent of an overweight DD.  I am thin, I work out pretty much every day.  We don't have chips/soda in out house. We emphasize protein and complete nutrition...and still my kid is overweight.  Yes she is overeating.  Yes we are trying to help her.  But it is not a failure of parenting.  It is a failure of willpower, and if it was easy to overcome, 70 percent of Americans would not be overweight.[/quote]

So, you’re sitting there and watching her overeat? Are you portioning the food out? Are you saying, “you’ve eaten enough?” [/quote]

So you think PP should do that at the camp pizza party? Yikes. [/quote]

It’s not the camp pizza party or the teacher handing out starbursts. It’s the daily day in day out of what these kids are eating at home and what they were taught about eating at home.[/quote]

That particular poster said she did not keep junk in the house and served nutritious food. So is she supposed to smack the kids hand when they go for a Starburst or extra slice of pizza in public? [/quote]

If she is telling the truth then she needs to stop serving *so much* nutritious food.  Kids don’t get fat because of some starbursts here and there or the occasional pizza party.  The poster you responded to had it right, it’s the day in, day out habits learned at home.  This is not complicated.[/quote]

DP. Except that it is. My binge eating as a kid began as a direct result of my mom tightly controlling portion sizes. Growing bodies want what they want. [/quote]

Okay,  I stand corrected.  American fat kids are and have always been doomed to be fat and there’s not a damn thing their parents can do about it and it’s insane and smug to suggest that these parents even make an effort.

Thin children are thin purely due to the luck of the draw.  There are no good/bad, responsible/irresponsible parenting decisions being made along the way.  It’s out of our hands![/quote]

Nope, there are definitely positive things parents can do, but tightly controlling portions and restricting calories on a growing body isn’t it. I already said many pages back, you can build up their confidence around things that have nothing to do with the appearance of their body, keep them busy and active, and get them moving as much as possible. Move with them if you need to. Go for long walks if they don’t like sports. DCUM doesn’t like to believe that regular, vigorous movement will make you lose weight, but it was the one thing that made a difference for me. Not just because it burned calories, but because it made me feel strong and confident and like my body was actually worth taking good care of. Not a single reproving glance from my parents or awkward conversation about their concern about my weight gain could ever have had the same effect. [/quote]

I mean... science literally says that its a careful balanced diet and restricted calories that will help you lose weight.

The reasons for exercise are numerous and especially beneficial for children, but they necessitate extra calories.[b] And won't cause anyone to lose weight. 
[/b]
Despite your impression, your weight loss was due to your diet.  [/quote]
Bulls--t. I know somebody who did the Appalachian trail. Said he'd come into town and eat an entire pizza, then still be hungry, then he would eat 1/2 gallon of ice cream

My dad said end of basic training the drill sergeant had everyone line up then he put his hand in everyone's front of their pants to see who lost so much weight they needed a new uniform. This was the 1960s so there were hardly any fatties then, so normal weight kids lost that much weight!

10,000 steps is 300 or 400 calories

[/quote]

Excercise requires calories, but over-exertion does not automatically lead to burning of fat. [/quote]
Submit your findings to a scientific paper please, please disprove conservation of energy and mass. Absolutely fascinating topic! [/quote]

Your body is not a rolling ball on an incline.

How the body stores energy and taps energy and the types of macros it taps to create energy in different situations is very complex. But please read some scientific journal articles on nutrition.[/quote]
What would you say if I told you I have an MD and scored 80th percentile in the biochem GRE? [/quote]

I would say you should consult a nutritionist.[/quote]
Dear Nutritionist,

Some childhood obesity apologist on DCUM told me physical exercise does not translate into fat burn. What is your opinion? [/quote]

Dear Faux Doctor,

This is correct. You should focus on limiting calories and ensuring the child is getting the macronutrients they need for growth. Physical activity is excellent for many health-related reasons, and it has wonderful effects on metabolism and the body's processing of calories, but only a child or a troll would believe that you can exercise off excess calories.

Sincerely,

Your nutritionist[/quote]

+1.  You can't outrun a bad diet.[/quote]

It's more than that even. Research in this area is evolving daily. They have only mapped 3% of the gut biome and even that small amount has opened a world of information about why "what we are doing about obesity" is failing. Four people can eat the exact same healthy whole food, exercise the same amount, and their bodies can react in four different ways to the input/output.

To the PP about calorie burn, here is an easy one. People with hypotonia and/or low muscle mass do not burn the same amount of calories doing the same amount of exercise, and it will not result in the same level of muscle gain, thus will not translate into a significant change in metabolism as it will in a person with higher than average tone. Researchers are just beginning to realize various genetic aspects of metabolism that to not conform to the standard 'eat less move more' theory of weight.

Still, for people of generally average physiology the old methods work, so it is a good starting place. But if that isn't working, one should not keep doing the same thing and expect different results. Obviously, something is different about your body. [/quote]

Ok? So the person who has "low muscle tone" whatever that means, will burn fewer calories on their 10,000 daily steps. So what? I will burn less than my husband. Should I just give up and be a fatty for the rest of my life? [/quote]

This argument that calories in, calories out “doesn’t work” because people burn calories at different rates is so bizarre to me.

It’d be like saying you and three of your friends all got the exact same haircut.  Two of you look fine, one looks amazing, and one looks like shit.  Therefore haircuts don’t work as a makeover strategy because the same cut doesn’t look great on everyone.  (Sorry for the clumsy analogy but my point is people are individuals and you can’t figure out what haircut looks good on you based on what looks good on your friend, just as you can’t determine your caloric needs based on your friend’s caloric needs.)[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics