Teenage son struggling with weight

[giladams]

I am becoming a little overwhelmed at the moment with my son. I obviously want him to be happy and healthy and I always like to encourage him to make good decisions but I am getting increasingly concerned when he doesn't seem to be bothers.
My son is 14 years old and if I'm completely honest begining to look overweight . He has in the past 2 or 3 years been gaining weight rapidly and it's beging to look noticeable. He has chubby cheeks with a double chin developing a flabby belly and chest and wide thighs. Last time we weighed himself which was about 3 months ago he was 78kg and is about 167cm tall. If you looked at him you wouldn't say he was obese or really overweight but definitely chubby.
My problem is that he does t think there is a problem. Whenever I bring up healthy eating he just says he already does it all (in which we do try our best) and that he plays football 4 days a week. His coach even pulled me over to tell me he was struggling but I just don't know whether to try to encourage him to lose or at least maintain his weight to just leave it as it is. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Get him into weights. My boys do marital arts at proper body builders style gym and it's got them really interested in training and weights for strength.

Also talking to trainers in gym has made them aware of good nutrition - not protein drinks but importance of good protein, fat and vegetables - balancing meals

At home we would have something like a chilli or a caserole with veg and mash all homemade and maybe a yogurt for desert

As much as he loves football I'm not sure he'll love going to the gym as everyone I've mentioned it he has always said he wouldn't go. His football coach has said to me that he needs to work on his running because that's what's holding him back so maybe athletics could be good what do you all think?

Athletics is great, look for clubs in your area. And of course anyone can go jogging any time they are free.

A good club should be giving kids that age lifestyle tips to help their sport, including diet, other exercise outside of club training and sleep. They all impact fitness, weight and performance.

tbh I would focus on his diet rather than just exercise as he is already doing football and martial arts?

I would be thinking 80% diet and 20% exercise.

How big are his portions? Part of the problem for my DS was that when he was with his (15 stone) dad, he was giving him the same size portions as he had himself. Make veg half the plate.

Does he have money he can spend on sweets/crisps?

You can help him all you want but he needs to want to make the change himself too. I wish you luck