Anonymous wrote:I would suggest NOOM instead... The best thing to support him is by not proving temptations in the home environment, especially at the beginning of his journey. Avoid buying chips, juice, soda. Avoid baking (cookies, muffins, pies, etc). Try to cook healthy meals or at least healthier versions of it... Like turkey chili instead of beef, or heart of palm lasagna instead of regular pasta/red meat sauce. Have lots of fruit and healthy snacks at hand, plus whole wheat instead of white flour goods.

Anyway, good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should try a local nutritionist or dietician. WW is good but it’s also difficult to manage with the points counting and their yearly program change. I’ve been doing the program on and off for about 20 years (lose/gain/lose/gain). I obviously have a self control issue. Unless you think he can keep the weight off with the program, he may be stuck in a yo-yo dieting situation that long term is unhealthy and messes up metabolism. I hate to sound like a Debbie downer. Overeating is an emotional trigger. You may want to get to the underlying reason why he overeats as that will help change his behavior. Also with WW, you can still eat junk within your points and that can continue the bad eating habits. I applaud your son for taking action to help himself and really wish him success. Jim sharing my personal struggles as additional information to help with the process rather than being discouraging. I was very thin as a child/teenager and been struggling with my weight and eating habits since college

Agree, well said. The path to long term success is to build his skills in eating intuitively, loving his current self and reducing his issues around food. Highly recommend you all read Intuitive Eating and have a discussion on how he can achieve success in connecting with his hunger and eating cues vs embarking on a lifetime of restrictive eating governed by external definitions of what he “should” eat vs fixing his ability to listen to his own body. If the whole family is encouraging him to diet then that’s just reinforcing that his body is a problem.

I say this because I did ww relatively early (19) and it took me many years to unlearn their definitions of what foods and portions are ok. It set me back years in learning how to prepare healthy complete meals based on my appetite and needs rather than gaming my points for the week. Please make sure you are learning about the harms of diet culture so you can be a good support for your child.

While I don't disagree with the idea of intuitive eating in general, OP said her son is obese. He needs to get the weight off and after that maybe look at other avenues towards maintenance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should try a local nutritionist or dietician. WW is good but it’s also difficult to manage with the points counting and their yearly program change. I’ve been doing the program on and off for about 20 years (lose/gain/lose/gain). I obviously have a self control issue. Unless you think he can keep the weight off with the program, he may be stuck in a yo-yo dieting situation that long term is unhealthy and messes up metabolism. I hate to sound like a Debbie downer. Overeating is an emotional trigger. You may want to get to the underlying reason why he overeats as that will help change his behavior. Also with WW, you can still eat junk within your points and that can continue the bad eating habits. I applaud your son for taking action to help himself and really wish him success. Jim sharing my personal struggles as additional information to help with the process rather than being discouraging. I was very thin as a child/teenager and been struggling with my weight and eating habits since college

Agree, well said. The path to long term success is to build his skills in eating intuitively, loving his current self and reducing his issues around food. Highly recommend you all read Intuitive Eating and have a discussion on how he can achieve success in connecting with his hunger and eating cues vs embarking on a lifetime of restrictive eating governed by external definitions of what he “should” eat vs fixing his ability to listen to his own body. If the whole family is encouraging him to diet then that’s just reinforcing that his body is a problem.

I say this because I did ww relatively early (19) and it took me many years to unlearn their definitions of what foods and portions are ok. It set me back years in learning how to prepare healthy complete meals based on my appetite and needs rather than gaming my points for the week. Please make sure you are learning about the harms of diet culture so you can be a good support for your child.

Anonymous wrote:I would suggest NOOM instead... The best thing to support him is by not proving temptations in the home environment, especially at the beginning of his journey. Avoid buying chips, juice, soda. Avoid baking (cookies, muffins, pies, etc). Try to cook healthy meals or at least healthier versions of it... Like turkey chili instead of beef, or heart of palm lasagna instead of regular pasta/red meat sauce. Have lots of fruit and healthy snacks at hand, plus whole wheat instead of white flour goods.

Anyway, good luck.

Anonymous wrote:Yes! If it's on-line, all the better. Teenagers would do well with that. Or Noom.

Learn how to eat

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks everyone this is very helpful, and very kind of you of pulling for him. Got the appt with his ped next month so should be in time for the updated program.

Anyone know a good nutritionist or dietitian in NoVa or DC? Will ask his Dr for some names too.

And yes he got a gym membership a couple of months ago and goes almost everyday when he doesn't have soccer.