Overweight 10 year old / Summer Holidays

[MandyTW1]

Hi,
10yr old son (going into year 6) who is mostly quite active, encouraged by his fitbit, but we reckon with a bit of a summer effort we can increase his exercise and get him to make the sensible food choices, rather than the battles.
He's bought into this idea.
Just to be clear, we're not looking at a crash diet, but making healthy choices, aiming for running a 2k without stopping and hoping he will then grow into his weight.
Assuming there isn't anything out there, I'd be interested to hear from other Mum's struggling with the same problem.
I can't find any local day camps which encourages healthy eating/exercise, aimed at overweight children, I can only find residential "fat camps".
A group of similarly aged and "obesity-challenged" children could support each other (or at least the parents could share ideas).
I'd also could investigate the cost of sharing a personal trainer for children and/or get a children nutritionist involved.
Indeed, if there was enough interest in this thread, there might be someone out there who could approach us with a 6 week "club" plan?
First time posted here....hope someone replies

Fit for Sport run summer camps, they have various activities during the day, and encourage healthy eating. My daughters go to the one in Sunbury leisure centre, we live in Hampton. Not sure what other venues they cover locally. My 9 year old has ben able to swim twice in a day at previous camps. Google their name to get to their website.

Forgot to say my 11 year old is heavier than I would like, but he doesn't enjoy the club, he is going into year 8, attending a week of activities at his school including sports, wake boarding and activities in the woods at Bracknell. Then he is going to Spain for 4 weeks.

Thanks. :)

Are you sure he won't grow into his weight? My brother was like this at age 10..he then shot up at age 11 or 12 and literally stretched and became skinny as a rake! Just a thought, I'm sure you know your own child though of course.

I've been waiting for my DS to grow into his weight gif a couple of years! In the past I would find that he filled out then grew in height, he has been growing up, but isn't slimming down when he grows.

Hi, we're in TW9 and have a similar problem DS is very self conscious about his weight. I can't afford a personal trainer but if you found one who was child friendly and we could slot some sessions in I'd consider it.

DS is actually quite sporty so he is doing a football and a tennis camp over the summer, he also plays rugby but just isn;t very active unless he actually out at a sports event.

I'm hoping he will grow out of his weight (rather than into it!) but in the meantime encouraging him to get fitter now is surely something to aim for? Even if being podgy is temporary it can only be good for him to do more exercise (I am massively overweight myself and although I eat healthily in fornt of him - I'm hardly modelling a good example).

I think he might also like to meet up with other kids who are not skinny - it seems like the rest of his class are super skinny not even just slim!

Mandy if he likes tennis we do a weeks tennis camp at NPL in Teddington and a weeks football camp run by Motiv8 at Richmond college. No particular emphasis on healthy eating but frankly no opportunity to snack except what you send them with/let them buy and in my expericne they easily burn off the calories.

Hi All,
Thanks for all replies.
I don't think he'll naturally just "grow into it".
I was always a fat child and have always struggled with weight/exercise, though am obviously trying to sort myself out too.
We've both got fitbits now and I've started cycling.
Obviously we're trying to encourage healthy eating which is I think is his biggest issue but as said above, it's only good to get fitter and this summer seems the perfect opportunity.
Will look at both NPL and Motiv8. Know of them both.
One to one personal trainer not an option here either and though possibly not needed, there's a school Mum who is also keen to get her son together with my son, so I might explore costings, particularly if we could get to 3-4 children...

He did a 2k Park Run yesterday and now has a target to improve his time over the next 6 weeks.
He's now signed up to the Motiv8 football camp and have a reasonable price for up to 4 children for extra footie or other training by an M8 coach.
Have 1 or 2 spaces if anyone wanted to join them?
DM me if interested.

Hi - I just wondered how you have been getting on and wanted to share our experience.

DS is a couple of years older, in Y8 and has always been a little on the heavy side, not too much and potentially could grow up and out of it. However he had always been conscious of it and wants to be 'normal' as he put it. It has also held back his progress in a couple of sports that he's very good at.

Anyway we hit July and the summer hols and he made a huge effort to both get fitter and lose a bit of weight. Nothing too drastic but just eating healthy, cutting out most of the crap and having slightly smaller portions. He exercised a lot and with an eBay purchase of a treadmill in the garage has been running alternate days - can easily do 5k now and is getting faster (tho not fast!)

He lost 8kg over the summer to now and gained an inch in height and on age & height adjusted BMI is almost in the healthy weight range.

The main thing that has changed is his mindset. Training is now normal, he loves seeing the improvement, and he just eats well with less bad stuff - but some of it also.

So it can be done! I don't think he changed his food intake that much apart from cutting 85% of crap out. I think the training made the big difference and he's now hooked on that!!