Meal ideas for 13 old boy to loose weight?

[lotti37]

Need to help my 13 son loose weight. Can anyone give some ideas for healthy tasty meals that children will enjoy thank you .

I would use slimming world , you can google any meal of his choice . Everything's lean and cooked in low calorie fat , you can still have pasta and rice and potatoes . Just watch his portion sizes , nothing comes out of a jar with hidden sugars .

He is probably due a growth spurt so if you cut his portion sizes of simple carbs and increase his protein his weight can almost stay the same whilst he grows.

Have a look at no s diet too and see if he is on board to try that or Paul McKenna both of these help you be mindful of your meals and stop snacking which is often a problem for teenagers. Increasing exercise with c25k which you could do together would also help but he may already being doing lots of sports.

For ideas it depends what he normally eats and if he is fussy. What do you think is the problem with his current diet?

Most family meals can be made healthier by just changing a few things like increasing the veg.

Change white bread for brown bread and wraps. I thought my children (DD14 DS13 DS9 DD4) would massively kick off against my total ban on white bread. But I offered either wraps or brown bread and they are fine with it. Generally they have brown bread only as toast, then wraps instead of sandwiches.

My DS13 like sliced raw peppers with his lunch. Or cherry tomatoes, or carrot or cucumber slices. Beats having a packet of crisps.

I don't serve potatoes with meals. So just more veg instead. No chips meals helps a lot, tons healthier.

I also swapped to only healthy, non sweetened breakfast cereals. So it's that or nothing. They eat it. They alternate cereal then brown bread toast on weekdays, with treat breakfasts at the weekend only (pancakes, french toast, bacon sandwiches etc)

Thanks for all your replies. We have 50/50 bread in our house.maybe should swop to brown bread. He is terrible for sneaking biscuits and treats . Do your children have a Snack when they comes back from school? If so what sort of things do they have ? Need some meal inspirations for dinner . Thank you

Changing to brown bread might be healthier but won't result in any weight loss.
Tell us what he eats now, and how overweight he is.

He is terrible for sneaking biscuits and treats Stop buying them, no one needs snacks and treats if you are eating proper meals.

Do your children have a Snack when they comes back from school? If so what sort of things do they have ?

Generally no, dinner is 5.30 so they don't have to wait long. I do allow free access to the fruit bowl though. So if they do want something, it will be fruit.

My children are terrible for just-before-bed snacking though. They are all highly sporty and often need to eat after they come home from clubs but before bed. This is when they eat loads of toast. I prefer them to have a substantial carb-based snack (given it's after exercise) than surgery crap. So they have either (brown) toast or (sugar free) cereal.

Need some meal inspirations for dinner

Meat and 3 veg. Chicken/chops/steaks/fish with 3 portions of veg each in the steamer.

Bolognese: tinned toms, peppers, onion, mushrooms - I blend to smooth. Serve with quinoa or baked sweet potato if cutting down on pasta.

Stew/casserole.

My children like the slimming world "cola chicken". I tend to use chicken stock instead of cola nowadays, they don't know the difference as long as it has plenty of worster and soya sauce in.