Son Wants to Lose a few Pounds

[bunkywoo]

My 14 year old son has a little tummy - if he needs to lose 10 lbs I'd be stretching. Anyways, looking for suggestions on whether a carb counting or calorie counting diet would work best for him, or something altogether different. He's not fat in the least, just a teenager who doesn't have a long, lanky flat torso like some of his friends. Unfortunately inherited tummy style from Mom & Dad (who in their 40's no longer care that they don't have (or ever had) a six-pack!).

Promised him I'd help him and thought this board would be better than searching through millions of diets on the web.

Thanks!

Laurie

[shay75]

I'd verify with his doctor that this makes sense, but I'd try to have him eat lean proteins, veggies, fruits and only good carbs (no white flour or sugar) Because of his age, he might yet have a growth spurt so I wouldn't totally eliminate anything from his diet. Also swimming and jogging seem to help with that core area.

[nuyou]

There are three terms that you have to understand in order to take control over your weight, and they are: Fat, Fiber and Carbohydrates. Fat is pretty straight forward. Fiber is anything that grows out of the ground... mainly fruits, veggies, nuts, grains and berries; and the important thing to know about fiber is that the digestive acid in your stomach won’t break it down, so when you eat fiber, it fills you up faster and keeps you feeling full longer. Finally, Carbs are foods that are naturally sweet, or anything made with sugar or flour.

If you ever heard that by eating low-fat or no-fat foods you can lose weight, well in reality, that’s just half the story. Most people, when trying low-fat diets, go to the store and start reading labels and look for zero-fat products. Well, what if you love spaghetti – on the label it says, “zero fat.” So then you start looking at the spaghetti sauce and it has almost no fat... and then there’s the “no-fat” cakes and cookies – and all that other stuff. So then people think, “Great, I can eat all I want.” They eat almost no fat at all – and end up GAINING weight! That’s why you need to know the other side of the story.

If you eat only low-fat foods, most of them are low in fiber and also very high in carbs. Because they are low in fiber you have to eat more to feel full. It’s like trying to fill up a sink that has no stopper. Eventually you can get it to fill up – but it takes a lot more water to do it. So. When you eat more, you take in more calories than you need and your body stores the extra carbs and calories as fat. That’s the other side of the low-fat diet. Unless you eat low-fat and high fiber, at the same time, you’re not going to lose weight.