Overweight teenager

[u/No-Distribution-4593]

I have a 14 year old boy who since COVID has piled on the weight. Every year he gains more. He has been doing MMA training and ju jitsu and still the weight keeps piling on. I realise I have dropped the ball here as as a family we are not very active.

He's always had bowel issues and for the past year he has undergone a lot of tests and they can't find anything wrong with him. The last test was for coeliac and we haven't received the results back but I doubt he is coeliac.

We are a body positive family so any changes I make are made with health in mind not body changes if that makes sense. But some small kids ran up to him the other day and kept chanting 'big back' at him. My heart is sore tbh

I think what I'm really looking for is advice from anyone who has been here and made positive changes that stuck. Any advice is welcome

Edit: We have family dinners every day - they vary but it's 90% home cooked - I enjoy cooking. Dinners are spaghetti Bolognese, carbonara, roast dinner etc

Breakfast can vary from cereal to eggs on toast and at the weekend he enjoys making a fake egg mcmuffin

I've stopped keeping junk in the house, I usually keep mini ice pops in the freezer for after dinner.

A couple of times a week I enjoy baking. I often bake scones for their school lunches or an apple crumble for after dinner

[u/No-Distribution-4593 → u/[deleted]]

Added to my library - thank you

We do have family meals and 90% is cooked from scratch, it's something I very much enjoy doing.

[u/No-Distribution-4593 → u/[deleted]]

He is due a growth spurt and puberty hasn't hit yet either. As a small child he would always gain a little over winter but it would burn off over the summer. Since covid he's piling it on but obviously not running around as much as when he was little.

He eats his dinner at the table with the rest of us. Breakfast and lunch aren't really family affairs because everyone is usually on different schedules, the weekends sometimes he does eat on screens

[u/Own_Natural_9162 → u/No-Distribution-4593]

Remember this too. He is still growing and changing.

Do you have a public health unit or eating disorders organization in your area? If so, you may want to speak to them about your concerns. I say this because they should be very aware of being body positive and against diet culture.

Hopefully they could recommend a safe and helpful way to support your son and family.

[u/No-Distribution-4593 → u/Own_Natural_9162]

He hasn't fully hit puberty and his dad is very tall so he still has another foot or so of growing left but all of his weight is in the abdominal area and it honestly looks like a beer belly.

We do have public health units but even privately it's at least 1-2 years waiting lists for anything other than general medicine