weight not shifting despite cutting out the crap

[rosielee]

is this a familiar scenario to anyone? my 13 year old son is overweight- used to eat chips and take aways chinese etc- compounded by fact that i am a bean pole and have been able to eat everything and anything and never put on weight so it just didnt occur to me that i would have a son with an opposite problem- afetr being accused of being anorexia all through my teens when i didint have it- i assuemd my son would have same make up so i didnt think about what food i gave him and thought chips were a bit of fuijn every now and then (as they are to me) so long story short- it crept up on us that my son got very over weight and it got worse and worse until i couldnt believe my eyes- stretch marks- i feel aso guilty and look at hiom carrying all this round and hating himsself and meanwhile theres me skipping about being skinny still- feel so guilty im not carrying around all this weight too- so guilty.
so i understand at last what has happened and revolutionise our lifestyle- i completely turn things around- fruit, veg, no chips ever, no fat, no chips, sorbet for puds, apples and that the only thijng we havent done is excercise as my sons had a foot op and hasnt been able to walk- so that has hampered him- also we live in anti social area and dont ant to go out very muchp-0 but when we do we seem to go walking certainly not running in his condition. what i am asking is how the hell is this big lump around his waist going to go- we have genuinely tried our best- i know some over weight people say that and likle to kid themselves and tell others they do everyhtiong right and the weight doesnt go but i am being honest and say we try our best- which leads me to think- oh my GOD this means we have to up our game even more and this i dread- so that means eating our knuckles off with hunger! and my lad is a big growing lad he needs energy and food and a little fat may be at some point- do i start cutting out bread rice and pots? all he eats most days is fruit, fruit juices (in copius amounts) plaice and new potatoes for example- and is there an excercise that will shift wegiht without usinf feet too much- like pounding up and down so hard on them? can you imagine how you try really hard and think all this fat is going to disappear and a few months down the lines you notice no difference at all- can you imagine how we feel? and then we think well we have to go up another level and we are willing too but dont want to go hungry and leaving potatoes out are leaving out our fillers- i know for a fact that if we just eat a bit of a fish on its own and a couple of veg we would be hungry a couple of hours later and thats a danger zone i dont want to get in. i want nothing more for my son to be free of this fat which is blighting his life- any help wouold be greatly, greatly appreciated.

 

[KaraCooks]

all he eats most days is fruit, fruit juices (in copius amounts) plaice and new potatoes for example

I would say that's your answer right there.

You can cut out junk food, but if you're replacing the calories from junk food with the calories from healthy food, you're still not going to lose weight. Fruit juice is mostly empty calories - you get some nutritional value from it and certainly more than from sodas, but it's still a lot of calories for not a lot of value.

A cup - as in 8 oz - of orange juice is 110 calories.
A cup - as in 8 oz - of mixed fruit juice is 150 calories.

Most people don't drink just 8 oz of juice, but more like 16 or 20 oz glasses - so 2 or 3 glasses could be anywhere from 600 to 1000 calories a day, just in juice. If your son is drinking "copious quantities" of fruit juice, I'd say that's probably a big part of the problem.

Honestly it sounds to me like you need to educate yourself on what healthy eating is. And I'll also say that you need to move away from the idea that to lose weight you have to eliminate entire categories of food. I wouldn't be surprised if your 13 year old were getting the foods that you have "forbidden" elsewhere - that would be a pretty common thing to have happen.

There is no need - nor is it healthy - to lose weight by eliminating an entire category of foods. For most people, you're just creating a situation where they begin to crave that food. They set themselves up for failure that way.

Instead learn how to eat balanced, healthy meals in reasonable quantities. Your son could probably get to a healthy weight eating around 2000 calories a day - and maybe even a few more once he's able to be up and about exercising again.

But those 2000 calories can't be half fruit juice or half potatoes. They need to be balanced out among protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats.

Read the stickies in the nutrition forms here. There's lots of good information there.

 

[ChefChiTown]

Most people don't drink just 8 oz of juice, but more like 16 or 20 oz glasses - so 2 or 3 glasses could be anywhere from 600 to 1000 calories a day, just in juice. If your son is drinking "copious quantities" of fruit juice, I'd say that's probably a big part of the problem.

That was one of the reasons I gained so much weight. I would drink a carton of OJ every single day. It's not necessarily bad for you, but it's a TON of calories. Once I cut out drinking so much juice, it helped me dropped weight. Well, so did eating better and exercising, but STILL!!!

 

[KaraCooks]

I would drink a carton of OJ every single day. It's not necessarily bad for you, but it's a TON of calories.

Yup. Everyone says "But it's juice! it's HEALTHY!" and while that's true, it's still possible to over eat on healthy foods.

 

[ChefChiTown]

Yup. Everyone says "But it's juice! it's HEALTHY!" and while that's true, it's still possible to over eat on healthy foods.

Oh God, I know. But...orange juice is sooooo good!!!