Teen Weight Loss
Weight Loss Confidential
Weight Loss Confidential: How Teens Lose Weight and Keep It Off – and What They Wish Parents Knew, by Anne M. Fletcher, might look like just another teen weight-loss book, but it comes from a woman who watched the struggles of her own overweight teen firsthand.
Fletcher, who is also the author of Thin for Life, and a dietitian whose own son, Wes, battled with his weight and body image, puts her private expertise as a mom and her professional know-how as a dietitian to work in developing a strategy for parents and overweight teens to lose the weight – as a team.
Fletcher warns in the book that negative criticism and pushing your teen to lose weight never works. She solidifies my favorite motto: “Anyone who wants to lose weight needs to do it for themselves.” She emphasizes that teens must find their own internal motivation for losing weight and keeping it off.
Weight Loss Confidential tracks the progress of 41 teen boys and 63 teen girls, through Fletcher’s in-depth interviews and case studies. The teens come from across North America and all walks of life. The common factors for successful weight loss that she found were healthy food choices and portion sizes, and physical exercise. In all cases, she found that unconditional parental support made for the most success.
Throughout the book, Fletcher emphasized healthy attitudes and realistic expectations. She recommends that teens work with their physicians to find a weight loss program that is right for them. She reminds them that because they are growing taller, even a small (or no) drop in weight can represent a significant reduction in fat.
Fletcher presents these teens as role models to the reader, providing encouragement by showing that it can be done. All the teens were able to successfully lose weight and keep it off (using the strategies in the book) for more than two years – some to this day.
