How many calories on a diet for a 5”4 tenth grader?

PrairieFairy

Mon, May 06 2024, 12:20 am

amother Maroon wrote:

Well, she’s overweight and wants to do something about it . Let’s give her credit for that. The thing is, we just don’t want her to go to an extreme where she’s starving herself. There’s a happy medium. Calorie counting is extreme.
She will lose weight if she-

1- stops eating junk food
2- starts drinking lots of water
3- goes walking or does some other form of exercise 3x a week

In a few months she will be 20-30 pounds thinner IyH

You want to focus more on the "yeses" then on the no's.

Adding movement is good. Overstressing it can cause an unhealthy relationship with that as well.

Excessive junk food is not great...saying no junk food is unrealistic (she is a kid!) and can create fear foods plus self hatred restriction binge cycles when she cant stick to it.

Adding water and being conscious of it is great. Saying drink lots of water so you're not hungry isn't healthy.

We don't know her reasoning or if there is an emotional component. If there is, everything can be skewed because it's a teen.

We can give suggestions but really, it would probably serve OP and her daughter best to get suggestions from someone specialized in child nutrition and eating disorders so it can be worded better.

For all we know, OPs daughter is fine and just wants to get healthier and just needs info on how. It's best if it came from someone in the teen field who is clued in on the specifics of the girl so it can be taught/given over in a way that helps her to get healthy while avoiding an eating disorder.

Everything can be skewed if not in appropriate context.

tichellady

Mon, May 06 2024, 12:20 am

amother Maroon wrote:

People who are overweight can have eating disorders. Dieting is known to be rather ineffective in the long term. There are people who eat healthy and exercise and are still not thin. There are thin people who eat junk, don’t exercise and don’t drink water.

Op needs to be a parent and get her daughter help. She doesn’t need to give her a number of calories to plug into a diet - that is irresponsible

amother

Wandflower

Mon, May 06 2024, 12:33 am

Just because she doesn't WANT to go to a nutritionist doesn't mean she shouldn't.

OP, you should tell her that you don't know how many calories to eat, but a nutritionist would know.
Find her a nutritionist who is known to be gentle, not rigid; someone who has worked with teens is ideal.

If she has never dieted before, you have a golden opportunity to do it right the first time. She hasn't ruined her metabolism yet.

If she doesn't get professional help, she will yo-yo diet for the next 20+ years of her life and wind up fat and miserable when she's in her early 40s. I speak from personal experience.

mary6

Mon, May 06 2024, 2:29 am

Hi That is so great that your daughter has taken an interest in her body.
Please explain to her that it isn’t about counting calories as not all calories are equal she is a lot better off counting vegetables Smile

the more the better.
But in all honesty we need to eat out calories from whole foods - these are foods that aren’t ultra processed.
So much evidence has come out that a whole food diet - doesn’t matter how many calories, is gonna be good for you.
The other thing to remember if you start counting calories she will lose wieght, but her body will adapt to that and you will mess with her metabolism. On the other hand if she will change to a whole foods diet she will start loosing weight slowly while still eating the amount her body needs. Bonus points she will get all the added benefits of a healthy diet.
Good luck.

BmoreBubby

Tue, May 07 2024, 12:47 pm

PrairieFairy wrote:

This is very well said.

amother

Tue, May 07 2024, 11:39 pm

Thanks so much for all the ideas. I’ve incorporated some and she is not counting calories. I’m not a stranger to this struggle. I think it’s interesting that some posters think some actions cause a life of struggle with weight while the opposite would not. In truth, very few people who struggle with weight when they are young, do not have to be careful as adults. It varies from one person to another, so one can think, if I would have done this my metabolism would be faster, or I would not have an eating disorder. In truth, you could have done that and you would still have a slow metabolism or eating disorder. There are so many factors that go into this.