Helping 12 yo lose weight

[gghdh]

Ds is getting a bit podgy and is self conscious. He is active and does sports but makes poor food choices at school. I want to make it easy for him to lose a bit of weight without making it into a diet. Any tips? Is there a YouTube channel which does healthy recipes/snacks? I think he would like to start making his own food with me and that might inspire him

Breakfast and dinner he has at home? Make them as healthy as possible and limit the amount of snacks you have in the cupboards

is he at secondary school and buying himself lunch?

For young people it’s not weight loss but management so their weight remains as it is and they grow- find healthy alternatives for his poor food choices, stop fizzy drinks, clear out your snack cupboard and get more active as a family.

Tread carefully. Have less crap available at home. Make home meals healthy as possible and watch the portions a bit.
My Dd was similar at that age, 12-13 was definitely carrying more weight than she wanted to. At nearly 15 now her body shape has changed again along with some of her eating choices and she is now a very healthy size and weight. He is due for puberty and a big growth spurt. Keep him active and feed him good food and hopefully he’ll grow into himself..

Healthy meals and not too many sugary snacks at home. My son was a little bit podgy from 12 -14 and then all of a sudden he shot up in height and it evened out, This is common around the age they start puberty.

I want to echo the above that it is very common for boys at this age to bulk out a bit before suddenly shooting up in height. I’ve seen it with my own sons and their peers.
Don’t try and get him to lose weight, concentrate on making healthy meals at home and that he continues to be really active.

Yes he eats quite healthily at home but would favour crisps / chocolates if given the choice rather than healthy snacks. Fruit bowl is always available. He eats paninis and unhealthy stuff at school.

Is the canteen cashless? If so, give him less money for food at school. I use to give mine enough for just a main and they had to take food from home for snacking. Mainly because a packed of crisps was £1.05 . We had an app that told us what they bought so I could tell her off for spending a million pounds on ‘cookies’ and other bollocks.