DD16 concerning weight gain

[Fee129]

DD16 was never a slim child, always hovering between 90th - 93rd centile. We kept an eye, tried to instill healthy habitats by modelling them in ourselves. Both myself and DH are not overweight. I have two other children, DS19 and DD14, both are a healthy weight. She is the only one, which I think she struggles with. Pretty much since becoming a teen, her rate of weight gain increased. Each year it seems to get worse. She's only 157cm and hasn't grown since she was 12. Between 13 and 14, she went from 59kg to 66kg. By 15 she was 77kg. She's now 95kg. So she's put on 18kg in the last year. We're concerned, the GP is concerned, but she's all bravado. How do we help her? We don't want to clip her independence, but I'm confident it's activities away from us that are causing it. She's pre diabetic, she has high blood pressure, but she won't engage.

You need to frame any discussions about concerns about health, rather than focusing on weight. No doubt she will be very aware, and feel shame and unhappiness about her weight gain anyway, which will exacerbate any eating issues she might have. Perhaps focus on the high blood pressure and being pre-diabetic, and discuss strategies that she 'and you all as family - can do to work on that.

Could also be worth her getting a blood test and seeing if anything is amiss, and considering investigations for things like PCOS?

It sounds like classic insulin resistant PCOS. Does the GPs concern extend to actually doing something useful like testing hormone levels and insulin sensitivity and then treating for any discrepancies with suitable medication like metformin?

If she does have PCOS then her body may not be adequately able to break down glucose in her blood stream. The way the body then deals with that is to store that excess glucose as fat. The more fat you have the less sensitive you are to the insulin produced, the more fat you make and round and round the cycle goes.

Metformin and other medications can help with that, as can modifying diet to reduce sugar intake. Less carbs, more protein, more fat. Carbs should be from green veg, berries, and in whole grain/multi seed form so that they break down slower.