11 year old daughters belly

[bonusjonasus]

My dd is just 11, she has started puberty (breast buds and hips) but this has been ongoing for a while now.

She is very active (trains competitively in her sport 10 hours a week) and is never still.

She has a belly, it has cellulite and rolls but the rest of her isn't like this. She has muscular legs due to her sport.

A couple of years ago I really changed her diet mainly due to fuelling for her sport, so she eats well and we've cut out a lot of sugar/processed foods during the week with occasionally treats on weekends.

Up until a few months ago we had never discussed her body but she has now started mentioning how she hates her belly and has become really self conscious about it.

Currently I'm just telling her she's beautiful and her body is changing due to hormones etc (hence the hips that have appeared out of nowhere) and everyone is different.

I feel like I'm struggling here with the right thing to do/ say.

Theoretically for the amount of exercise she does she should probably not have a belly like she does so is there something obvious I'm missing?

Help please

My son was like this before a growth spurt ! It may be that ? He’s very active and plays sports 3xweek . His body seemed to store what it needed and then he’d have a massive growth spurt and everything naturally balanced out with no changes in diet or conversations about food xx

Some women just do have a belly, she’s clearly an apple shape so any fat is going there. As she gets older, her hips and boobs may grow and balance it out or she may lose some weight there. It’s just where she holds her weight, but I wouldn’t say that to her. I would say that all women are designed to have a bit of fat on their belly to protect the womb (true) but she’s perfect as she is.