My daughter who is 17 has been lc'ing for 10 days now. She is down 8lbs.
She is not 'heavy' per say, but had put on 15lbs. since last Summer and I could see her getting more depressed about it w/each potato chip and pepsi she was consuming. So she started doing Atkins and is feeling motivated and good again.
She would like to start a fitness program using a local family owned gym. No trainers there, so I am asking you for advice. Her desire is to workout to help with her weight loss but also to tone and really get healthy and carry these habits into her adulthood, starting now.
What would be a good meal or food item(s) to have before her workout and then after. Does she need one or the other? Advice on beginning?
Would love some help with this so I can share it with her after school.

Thanks

just have her eat normally according to her style of low carb. she can micromanage her diet if she wants, but she'll figure out what makes her feel best before and after workouts.

if you really have to have something specific, there's always an array of whey protein shakes to pick from.

it's really not necessary to eat before or after excercise unless you are trying to put on every bit of muscle that you can. Eating before does give you more energy to get through the workout though.

I'm a little against making rules for workout-related eating though. It seems to me that if you eat because "this is the time that I'm required to eat" then you will tend toward weight gain since you will be having at least some food at times you otherwise would not have thought to eat.

About learning to work out at the gym it really helps a lot if a person has a friend to come along side her to teach what all those excercises do, how often and how intensely they should be done, and so on. In the meantime a good rule of thumb for the average teenage girl is "avoid chronic soreness". If the soreness doesn't go away in a couple days she is overtraining and needs to back off. She should also avoid going to the gym more than 3-4 days a week. A beginner can usually get all the excercises done within an hour or so.

Great advice, Thank you. I will pass it on to her.