Suggestions
?Question:
Suggestions
hey, i'm new here but i have a few questions to ask about health and fitness for a young friend of mine, who seems to constantly worry about her weight.
Firstly she is 16, 5'3 and weighs 7 and a half stone. I tell her this is a good weight to be but she never listens :rolleyes: even though she is a size 8 in clothes!
She constantly says that she is fat and needs to loose weight so after a long conversation i said i would help her loose a little weight so she can feel better about herself. I'm a bit stuck for ideas so i thought i'd ask around on here since you all seem to have experience in this and give great advice ;)
ok, this is what she has told me about here diet (i though i'd post this as it may help)
She says that she has binged eaten quite a bit recently and says she has felt guilty and bad afterwards (as most of us do), she says she would like to stop but doesnt know how. Its mostly things like chocolate so she is probably a bit of a sugar addict. Also she says that after her meals she has recently felt bloated, which probably has made her feel that she is fat in the first place. I've reccommended that she drinks more water but i'm not sure of what else to advise.
She has started the Davina Mc call workout DVD which we have started together, she seems to manage fine with it but i personally think she may be a bit bored of it.
sorry if i have rambled on or left anything out but i'm unsure of what to advise her and i'm getting quite worried. Thank you in advance for any comments or advice, and please let me know if there is anything else which may be useful to know :)
Answer:
At 5' 3'' and 7.5 stone I would think that she shouldn't go any lower!!! She's size 8 and thinks she's fat. I think you should be very careful here, if she is bingeing and feeling guilty, thinking she's fat when she's actually tiny.... it sounds like it could be the start of an eating disorder.
I don't have much advise, you cant really convince her that she's not fat she has to figure that out for herself but I would not advise you to help her lose weight, she might see that as you confirming that she IS fat.....
Maybe talk to her about a healthy eating (not a 'diet') and excercise and just try to boost her confidence....
Answer:
As Emglow said, I think your pal is on a very dangerous path.
7.5 stone is right at the bottom of the healthy weight range for someone who is 5'3.
I think all you can do is reassure her how great she looks, and what a lot of us wouldn't give to be a size 8!!
As for dieting, maybe she would consider the GI plan. Not as a diet as such, but a way of eating. It aims to keep the blood sugar more constant, thus reducing the cravings for choccies etc. The Rick Gallop book is excellant at explaining it - and it involves reducing starchy foods such as pots, white bread , eating loads of whole grains, fruit and veg and lean meats.
HTH,
Answer:
Oh dear. Do you know if she's been making herself sick?
One of my best friends is bullemic & she always maintains that it's the bloating feeling after she's eaten that makes her feel uncomfortable & consequently leads to vomitting.
I've reccommended that she drinks more water but i'm not sure of what else to advise.
As much as this is sound advice for most, it may not actually be helpful to your friend. My bullemic friend recently told me that drinking too much water can actually trigger an episode for her because it makes her feel bloated.
I don't see enough of my friend to know whether or not she's REALLY got her problem under control or whether it's what she wants me to believe, but she says she has it under control by eating regular small meals rather than 3 main meals. IMO her diet is far from balanced & there is still vast room for improvement, but if it works for her then great.
She still eats too much bread, pasta & cheese, but she's switched to a WW or Nimble bread which is much lighter, this all helps to make her feel less bloated.
I would love to sit her down & explain why we need certian foods in our diet for their nutritional value or that eating too much bread & crisps can lead to bloating & weight gain & that her love of dairy food isn't actually helping her arthritis & that generally her diet is pretty poor, but one step at a time. If the small changes she's made already help her then great.
The trouble is that people who have an eating disorder generally suffer with severe low self esteem. My friend was bullied for years, at school & then by a horrid boyfriend who always called her names, mainly " fat cow" which she wasn't :rolleyes:
She feels good at the moment so I don't want to put her down & make her feel like I'm picking on her. She'll probably think I'm a know it all & it'll only have a nagative effect on her self esteem.
I think zummerset lou's suggestion of the Rick Gallop GI book is a great one. Suggest she gets herself a copy or buy it for her as a gift if she doesn't. In fact this is probaably the answer for my freind & I've totally overlooked it :rolleyes: I think that if she reads about a sensible eating plan HERSELF, then she'll be less inclined to feel that she's being force fed information or preached to & it'll be less damaging on her self esteem. :)
Sorry if I've gone slightly o/t :o I hope you & your friend find a solution.
Good luck
Belle xx
Answer:
I agree, please please dont help her loose any more weight, it does sound like she is struggling with some sort of eating disorder. 7.5 stone is a very low weight for someone of her height, idealy i found that around 8.5 is healthy for that height (im the smae height 5ft 3. When I suffered from anorexia at the same age as me my mum took me to the doctor and he said that if i lost a few more pounds i would need to be admitted to hospital. Im not wanting to scare you, just to make you aware that it does sound like she is going through something very serious and may need help. I can recommend that when i was ill and recovering it really helped by eating fruit and veg as I knew that they were healthy, and there wasnt so much of the guilt involved with eating them as there was other foods. Also please dont force her to eat foods, she might rebel and eat less. Just reassurance that her weight is absolutely fine and she looks great, encourage her to replace processed foods with healthier choices if she feels guilt about eating, and please get some professional advice. There are many eating disorder advice phone lines you can ring and they will give you fantastic advice. If you can get her to see the doctor so she can talk about how she feels that would be even better. Im not saying she has an eating disorder obviously, but she does sound like she is on the path and really needs help before it develops any further.
I really hope that helps in some way, i know how distressing it can be. PM me if you want to talk, im online most days.