Everyday Systems: nosdiet: message 1017 of 3212

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Welcome, Kimberly. I'm sorry about this nasty
conversation you overheard, but maybe you can get some
good out of it. Unpleasant as it may be, on some
level, it's better to be aware of the things people
are saying than unaware, right?

Be very, very careful. People your age have even more
trouble successfully dieting that adults. I remember
reading recently that teenage dieting actually tends
to be counterproductive, that they gain more weight
than they would have otherwise, because of their
greater tendency to yoyo from going hungry to binging
and from system to system. But I'm not sure if "just
forget about it" is satisfactory advice either. What I
think you need to do is go *really* slow and *really*
steady. Maybe ease in one "S" at a time, as was
recently suggested, to make sure to can really handle
each one before making greater demands on your
willpower.

I know you're not the only teenager (or even younger
kid) reading these pages. It's depressing how
frequently queries like the following show up in my
web server log (these are all actual queries):

"im a kid why am i so fat"

"i am i kid but i am fat"

"i am just 11 years old and i am fat, can you please
help me lose weight"

"jeeves i am 13 years old and i am fat i want to lose
weight before school starts is there a way that teens
can lose weight"

It doesn't surprise me, intellectually, but it does
bother me. You read the statistics about obesity in
children and see fat kids all over the place, but this
is individual suffering. You can't get that from a
statistic. And these poor kids have nowhere better to
turn to than google (or jeeves). It breaks my heart.
And it makes me self conscious. I'm pretty confident
the advice I'm giving here is sound, but the stakes
are much higher if you know there are children
reading. Giving adults bad advice is bad enough, but
giving kids bad advice is liable to land you in the
lake of eternal fire with a millstone around your
neck, if you know what I mean. I heartily wish kids
and teens today today didn't need need to think about
diet. There is something that bugs me about the
thought of a little kid worrying about what he eats
and some adult inflicting rules on him. But my wishes
don't make reality. If you're at my site and looking
for advice, I can't pretend I don't know, and I can't
refuse to at least try to help. 

I have to admit, I'd be surprised if a kid could have
the self discipline to follow through with the
nosdiet. It's not easy, even for an adult. But I can't
think of anything better, either. Chances are, the
things that are pushing you over the edge and making
you fat are candy bars, chips, and sugar sodas. To
lose weight you need to cut drastically back on that,
one way or another. 

Obesity and overwieght in kids used to be rare. They 
were considered adult problems. And to deal with them,

kids are going to have to face them like adults. I
wish it 
weren't so, but it is.

Sorry for harping so much on the age thing. For all I
know you may be an astonishingly mature and adult 15
year old. But I know there are readers who really are
just kids and it's been eating at me for a while.

Best of luck, and keep us posted,

Reinhard

--- Kimberly <jar_jar_bonks@...> wrote:
> Hi All!! I just joined and thought I should
> introduce myself. 
> I'm a 15-year-old overweight girl. I'm sick of
> being overweight, 
> I'm sick of always feeling like someone is making
> remarks of my 
> weight, and I'm just plain sick of feeling fat! I
> weigh around 150 
> lbs. and I want to lose anywhere between 20-30
> pounds! I started 
> this diet yesterday, the day after my Birthday. 
> It's surprising how 
> much that I've realised how much I eat! 
> Everyone get's a "wake up call" to do something,
> but, I prefer 
> to call it inspiration. I just graduated from the
> 8th grade and for 
> our last class trip, we went to a camp for 3 days. 
> Well, on the 
> first day when I was in the cooking group, one of my
> close friends 
> informed me that the other girls kept saying how I
> needed to go on a 
> diet. I felt like I got slapped in the face when I
> heard this! 
> Later that night, the same girls invited some of the
> boys over to 
> our cabin. They thought I was asleep, but I heard
> everthing they 
> said (which I confronted them about the next day, a
> HUGE step for 
> me). They said horrible things about me, and I was
> always nice to 
> every single one of them!! Anyways, a couple of
> weeks ago, my best 
> friend called and told me something that brought my
> self-esteem way 
> up. My best friend is a boy, I'd say a cute boy. I
> always thought 
> he was embarassed by the way I looked. But, he said
> that no matter 
> what happens in the next 4 years, he'll always be
> there for me!! I 
> felt like crying I was so happy! I guess that's
> part of my 
> inspiration, although the first part wasn't really
> inspiration.
> Well, now you know some of my story, and I
> expect I've ranted on 
> for far too long!
> 
> Best Wishes To Everyone,
> ~*~*Kimi*~*~
> 
> P.S. I've never faced my weight problem before,
> this has been a 
> huge summer so far for me!
> 
> 
> 
>