To ask what a healthy teenaged girl's diet looks like

[Fishandchipstwice]

I have always struggled with my weight - I am losing weight now with an incredibly restrictive diet with the help of the GP - 2 stone to go!

I am determined that my daughter will not go the same way I did. She is currently 15 and is within the healthy BMI, although on the 70th percentile. Her diet is currently OK but she has expressed an interest to lose a bit of weight and I want to support her in this.

She would like to lose a stone. She is active and on the go lots.

She currently eats

• sugary cereal for breakfast so we are going to swap it for a low sugar version which is portion controlled


• A cheese wrap, crisps, carrot sticks, an apple and a box of raisins for lunch. She is going to get rid of the crisps but is wondering if she should forego any carbs at lunchtime.


• for tea we eat fairly healthy meals but need to look at portion size.


• She has one sweet treat a day (such as a mini chocolate bar) which she is reducing to one a week.


• She only drinks water unless it is a special occasion.

Does this sound OK? I have had such an awful relationship with food that I struggle to recognise what is 'normal'. Any advice gratefully received - thanks

I am determined that my daughter will not go the same way I did.

Then hold off with the 'support'. If you have issues then the 'supprt' is just the way that you will pass those issues on. You will get a thread full of replies from others also wishing to normalise their issues by airing/passing them on as well.

She can get a diet sheet from her GP surgery or the internet. She can follow it herself. If you want to help her, then tell her the truth - that you struggle with this yourself, but that you are happy to buy any more healthy options that she requests.

As a teenager she shouldn't be cutting carbs out of her diet. She needs to have a balance of all the main food groups (fats included). Fair enough to just have crisps/chocolate etc as a treat at weekends. Make sure she mas plenty of lean protein for growth and energy too. If she likes wraps, maybe include tuna/chicken one day, with salad or rice.
Mix up breakfast with porridge (slow release carbs) or overnight oats, maybe scrambled eggs at weekends when you have more time. And of course fruit.
Exercise is also key to being healthy, and will help her concentrate at school and rest, so it's great that she is active.
And most of all, make sure that healthy eating is just a part of life and that she isn't obsessing about her weight (you will know that already though OP as a mum to a teenage girl). Remind her not to weigh too regularly, as the scale can show a different number each day, depending on water weight, time of day etc. Keep it to once per week max.

Swap the raisins for grapes. Far less calorie dense.

This is a bit depressing reading to be honest. At 15 she shouldn't be watching her every meal and drinking only water. One mini choc bar a week!

If she really feels she wants to lose weight, then she could vary her diet some more and pick healthier alternatives. So swapping a sugary cereal for porridge or bran flakes with fruit. Changing crisps to a non-fried snack. Choosing whole grain bread rather than a wrap (they're surprisingly calorific). But portion control? Cutting out foods altogether or limiting them to once a week? That is just going to give her the very complex about eating which you are trying to avoid.

Does she really need to lose a stone? Either way cutting out the sugary cereal is no bad thing. Porridge or poached eggs or peanut butter on whole meal toast would be healthier and more filling alternatives. Definitely do not cut out the carbs, but the crisps and sweet treats can be swapped for bananas and apples or any other fruit she will eat. It should be more about healthy eating rather than starvation dieting.

Cutting carbs out of a teenage girl's diet is ridiculous. I mean she does not have to have sandwiches everyday for lunch, my DD would have wraps that were full of salad filling. Mostly we would have some sort of carb with out evening meal, but as long as its not a carb loaded meal everyday she should be right. That said if she is only having jam / chocolate spread / cheese in her sandwiches she needs to switch to salad fillings.

With all that said I have been down a similar road before with removing sugar from DD's diet when she was 13 but it was a totally different situation as she had weak enamel. So here are some ideas:

• I always gave her a homemade biscuit / muffin in her lunch because she needs some sugar but home made baking means its not processed / mass produced


• Nuts (walnuts, non salted peanuts etc)


• Dried and fresh fruit.


• Cheese (either cambert or cheddar) and crackers


• Cucumber / carrot slices / grapes

She's got to have some treats, at the weekend there were some treats - some pop, chocolate or ice cream. We would do home made takeaways e.g fish n chips, burgers and pizza.

Why does she need to lose a stone if she is a healthy weight?

My daughter is the same age and I haven't clue what percentile she is, my suggestion is to stop measuring!! Its not healthy. I agree with the first reply you had.

It already sounds like she eats a pretty healthy diet. I would just change the sugary cereal.

I really don't think teens who are not overweight should be actively trying to lose weight. She is still growing. I might be bringing my own personal experiences too much to this but I decided to lose a bit of weight around this age and a year later I was anorexic. There were other factors at play but it did start off as a desire to just be a bit thinner.

Oh dear. I think she needs to focus on living a healthy, active lifestyle with a well-balanced diet. Not calorie restricting anything!

Medically does she need to lose weight? Things like cutting down on sugar are good for all of us, but arbitrarily deciding she needs to lose a stone if she's a healthy BMI doesn't sound like a good thing to encourage at all
I skirted on the edge of eating disorders as a teen and if my parents had supported the voices in my head telling me I was huge when I wasnt, I think things would have spiralled fast. My mum passed on some unhelpful attitudes to body image, weight etc as it was and I think her being involved with anything to do with weight loss would have broken me.
Anything to do with being healthier is very different though if you can reframe it for both of you.

I would not be supporting a fifteen year old to lose a stone if she was in the healthy range, especially if she is active and on the go. Making healthy changes like a more nutritious breakfast are a good idea, but don't frame it as a change to lose weight.

Dont cut carbs and she needs sugar

Focus on health both physical and mental, rather than weight.
What sports / activities does she enjoy? Food is fuel for living.

if she’s a healthy weight why does she need to lose a stone? Are you trying to give her an eating disorder? Shocking

Breakfast- one or two weetabox with sugary cereal on top. Or add fruit side aswell, keep them full. Meals just up the veg or salad, don't cut the portion just change a certain amount to veg, but still have more of they're hungry after. I always think a decent meal is so much better then they snack on crap, especially for an active kid. and also have a drink available .
I think we are over feeding kids snacks to what we like as parents a lot of the time

I've suffered with weight issues my whole life, as long as I can remember I was on some kind of diet, either forced onto or supported by my parents. The thing is, I wasn't fat. I look back on photos and I've sobbed for poor 12 year old me. I suffer with Binge Eating Disorder and hide what I'm eating and I absolutely hate it. At 15, if somebody validated my wish to lose weight (they did) I'd have seen it as further confirmation that I was fat and needed to engage in some weird diet fad. As a result, I starve myself and then binge. I have a very unhealthy relationship with food and I'm working very hard to right this before my DD sees and ends up the same way. It would be worth investigating why it is she feels she needs to lose weight as well, has someone said something that has influenced her? Is she trying to fit in or impress someone? It's tough when you have your own issues that do get in the way, but if she's not actually overweight I'd simply be making healthier meals for everyone and getting outside more for physical activity rather than allowing food groups to be cut out etc. A healthy lifestyle, rather than the focus being on any kind of weight loss.

It's great that unlike many people in a similar situation you recognise you don't have a healthy relationship with food. Unfortunately having a DD grow up around that unhealthy relationship will have seeped through to her and an active 15 year old with a healthy BMI saying she wants to lose a stone is absolute proof of that. Either that or you are both kidding yourselves that she is a healthy BMI currently.

At 15 she is likely to still be growing and as someone active she needs the calories/protein/fats appropriate to her physiological make up and activity level. It's staggering how different individuals dietary requirements are and if you genuinely want to help and it's feasible I would book a private appointment (sadly the wait for NHS will be far too long) for DD with a qualified dietitian so they can give a personalised plan to instil a healthy attitude to food now and to carry her into adulthood. I did similar with DS at 13 and it was quite eye opening. For example at his height and activity level the recommended amount of protein was 56g per day. Given that the average protein content in protein sources is 20% that's a whole lot more chicken/eggs/milk in a day than I realised and I have a very healthy relationship with food.

I'd encourage her to speak to gp about her weight if it's a concern. No diet but healthy swaps are fine. So yes healthy cereal, mix up the lunches a bit so low fat crisps or some nuts instead? Maybe something like tuna pasta? She shouldn't be going hungry or eating less (unless she is over eating) just having a healthier version with 3 meals a day, exercise and absolutely some treats.

Ffs leave her alone. You'll do nothing but cause her issues. Tell her she's beautiful and build her up.

Echoing others here that this sounds way too restrictive for a 15 year old who is still growing and developing. It is good that you clearly are trying to be there for her but I don't think percentiles are really relevant at the age of 15 are they? If her bmi is healthy maybe focus her on toning up and doing some activities - swimming, joining the gym with you etc, whatever suits. She also needs to really make sure she has plenty of iron at this age.

This!

A teenage girl should be eating healthily like the rest of her family and not even thinking about it. She should be pigging out on a KFC every now and then and calling "cereals" "cereals", not "sugary cereals"

Has she expressed concern about "needing" to lose a stone?

My daughter at 16 (and yes, I'd noticed she wasn't the thinnest in her group

Phone sent before I finished. .

My DD expressed a desire to start doing some exercise other than school. She decided on workout vids and strength exercises on YT and started doing them.

I would never have said anything because she was clearly within the norms of healthy and having 3 anorexics in one class I've seen what parental pressure can do to girls.

I think her current diet sounds absolutely fine.
just improve breakfast. And get her to exercise more.

I think the problem is that once you start trying to diet, you can start a unhealthy relationship with food. If you restrict a lot, you usually end up binging and it’s a hard cycle to break. For example - once she restricts chocolate to once a week, she may find herself binging on it more often because it becomes more appearing.

If she’s a healthy weight there’s no need for a diet. I would recommend building healthy habits. Add in a daily walk. Add in fruit and veg. Enjoy life and not go down the rabbit hole of food restriction, dieting, binging etc.