The rate of childhood obesity is on a fast rise. A recent study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that over 15 percent of six-to-nine-year-old were overweight in 1999 to 2000 compared to around 11 percent in 1998 to 1994. (1) The study also found that the increase in obesity has prompted an increasing number of children diagnosed with previously exclusive grown-up, obesity-related conditions, such as high cholesterol and Type II diabetes. That is why we bring you some ways you can help your child to lose weight.
There is no speedy and simple approach to enable your child to lose weight. It requires long-term adjustments in lifestyle and dietary patterns, and we should include it in the family structure. However, this does not mean it is impossible. Here’s how you can help your child lose weight with no fuss.
14 Ways To Help Your Child Lose Weight
1. Be Attentive.
Make your child understand that you relate to their struggles to adapt as you endeavor to create a more helpful lifestyle. Urge your child to talk to you, ask open-minded questions, and let them see that you comprehend the pressure they are facing from peers, the media, etc. Thank your child for sharing when they open up to you.
Furthermore, it would help if you attempted to give your child basic reasoning strategies so they can pull apart advertising tactics by the media all alone.
2. Try Not To Use General Labels.
When you use labels like “fat” or “heavy”, your child naturally feels judged (paying little mind to your intentions) as these words come stacked with negative undertones.
While it’s unavoidable that you should discuss your child’s weight, it’s smarter to use a more general phrasing like ‘losing some weight will make you look smarter than a chubby TV character.’
3. Set Achievable Goals.
Because children are still in their development stage, it might be safer to help them maintain their weight instead of making them lose weight unless it is vital. As your child becomes taller without putting on weight, they will normally get more slender.
For the very obese children, a one-pound a week weight loss routine is a decent aim. The more workable the objective, the more likely your child can live with these lifetime modifications.
4. Consult A Pediatrician.
If you worry about your child’s weight, schedule a meeting with a pediatrician. They can analyze weight issues and help build up a plan for your child to lose weight easily.
Your child’s doctor will likewise assess your child and may arrange a lab or other tests to decide whether there is a clinical reason for the weight gain or if there are any complications from it.
Make a rundown of your child’s dietary habits, exercise, or activity level, and alert the doctor to any prescriptions, impediments, or conditions your child has.
Ask the doctor about childhood weight, diet, exercise, or any similar inquiries.
Converse with the doctor about ways you can help with your child’s weight loss. They may recommend seeing a dietitian and children’s fitness expert to assist you with the best and most secure approaches to help your child.
5. Encourage Physical Activities.
Any vigorous activity will enable your child to burn calories. Strolling, running, bicycle riding, and Rollerblading are ways to burn calories. It would help if you likewise urged your child to stay active in different ways, such as taking the stairs rather than the lift or walking as opposed to driving to a friend’s home or the nearby store.
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6. Calculate Calories.
Calculate the calories your child needs. Most doctors’ weight loss proposals depend on your child’s age. For instance, the doctor will probably recommend that a child younger than 12 lose around one pound for every month, and a child above 12 can safely lose as much as two pounds each week.
For a young child who isn’t overweight, the objective may be to prevent the child from putting on more weight instead of encouraging them to lose weight.
Making sense of the number of calories your child needs to lose weight can help you plan their meals.
Incorporate the five nutrition choices each day. The five nutrition types are fruits, vegetables, grains, lean proteins, and low-fat dairy. (2)
Give your child at least three nutrients packed meals for each day that incorporate nourishments from the five nutrition choices.
Try not to be excessive in restricting calories. Not only would this be unhealthy for your child, but it will also sabotage her confidence and progress.
Urge your child to eat three little meals and two little snacks every day so they don’t go for long periods feeling hungry, which can eventually prompt binge eating. Give them loads of fruits and encourage them to drink water.
For example, orange not only has fewer calories than a glass of squeezed orange, but it also has fiber that can enable your child to feel more full and more satisfied. Offer low-fat nourishments like skim milk and low-fat yogurts or cheeses.
7. Change The Family’s Eating Routine.
Serve family meals just in the kitchen or dining room with no different interruptions like the TV. If your child eats while watching the TV, they may not know how much food they eat and wind up feeling full in excess.
8. Follow-up with Check-Ups.
If vital or requested by the doctor, take your child to the doctor every two weeks for a weight check and blood tests. Maintain a strategic distance from everyday weigh-ins at home since minor weight changes can cause a child additional pressure.
Weight gain in children is because of various components, which include a bad eating routine, absence of exercise, hereditary, and hormonal conditions.
By getting clinical counsel, giving your child a sound diet, and empowering exercise and activities, you can enable your child to lose weight with no fuss.
9. Consult A Fitness Trainer.
Besides diet, exercise is often one thing doctors recommend for children to lose weight. Apart from playtime, you might need to meet with a certified trainer who works with children to either train your child or recommend an exercise program for her.
Look for a trainer who has a youth fitness accreditation. These kinds of coaches are better choices for your child over those at gym centers.
Understand that a youth wellness expert can help your child exercise and lose weight regardless of whether your kid doesn’t get a lot of activity. Ask the coach any inquiries you may have about how you can do the exercises with your child, so they don’t feel alone.
10. Limit Sugar Intake.
Limit the quantity of unhealthy foods you have in your home or make accessible to your child. Snacks like cake or cookies and beverages like soft drinks have higher fat and calories. Choose fruits and other healthy choices when shopping for food.
Keeping meals healthy in your home can help your child to stay away from bad nourishments.
Note the sugar in your food choices. Read the packages for ingredients like corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose, or maltose.
Abstain from banning sweets completely to avoid cravings and indulgence. Consider presenting organic products with natural sugar instead of baked and processed foods.
11. Change Your Child’s Diet Gradually.
While you might feel the need to totally change your child’s diet to speed up their weight loss, make the changes cautiously. Children have sensitive palates and can be impervious to change, so continuing gradually can enable your child to become acclimated to a more beneficial diet.
Supplant fast foods with more beneficial alternatives. For instance, substitute white rice with brown rice and include more vegetables that your child likes.
12. Enjoy Family Meals.
There is proof that having family meals together can encourage your child to better choices on nutritious food, and this will enable your child to lose weight with ease. (3)
Plan dinner at the same time every night to help build up a daily schedule. Let your child partake in cooking or preparing the table. These exercises can make mealtimes fun, learn about sustenance or food together; this will help them make better food decisions in your absence.
Consider reducing the number of times you eat out, particularly fast foods because this can impede your progress.
13. Make Other Lifestyle Changes.
Become familiar with the advantages of exercise for children. Exercise and physical activities can help your child shed weight faster. And apart from burning calories, it strengthens their bones and muscles, encourages them to sleep better, and stay awake during the day.
Put into consideration that a child needs at least an hour of moderate to vigorous activities daily.
Give your child the option of joining a sports group like your neighborhood swim or soccer group.
Try various exercises until you discover one your child is interested in. For instance, if your child likes art and nature, nature hiking or rock climbing may be a decent decision for them.
14. Make Activity Time Family Time.
Encourage your entire family to take part in activity time. This can stress the significance of physical activities for the entire family and keeps your child from feeling singled out.
Let them understand the danger of excess weight. It might be hard for children to comprehend why they have to lose weight, which may make them rebel against your recommendations for changes.
Conversing with them about potential outcomes of being overweight, such as medical issues or not fitting into clothes, can help them focus on losing weight.
Keep in mind, use terms that children can comprehend. For example, you could say, “it’s basic to move around and watch what you eat continually.”
Those additional pounds can make your bones hurt or may make it harder to run quickly when playing with friends.
Photo credits: By August de Richelieu from Pexels
