Hi All,

I decided to post in this thread on purpose to get attention from the teenagers and youngers to help me, all adults are welcome too>
I'm a member of this forum and have been following a low carb plan and decided it would help him as well.I have a 12year old boy who is severely over weight. He lives with his dad in the city about 6 hours from me. I sent him my atkins book so he can read up on what atkins and low carbing is really about. He's been reading up, he's very smart and we been talking back and forth on how to start this low carb diet. It's hard for me to put a list together for him because he goes to school and he says they serve nothing lowcarb at lunch. Let me get to my point, I need help on putting together some ideas, grocery list, recipes, allready made foods that his father can purchase for him so he can start out a lowcarb diet. Here what I have so far. He is 12 and it's about 195lbs. Yes I know that's bad, but I have no control of it.

eggs
all ready made bacon
all ready cooked sausage
low carb bread
sf peanut butter
sf smuckers jelly
butter
cheeses
Ham
sf jello
low carb ice cream
hot wings
sf hot chocolate
Carbsmart choc milk
bag of pork rinds
green beans(only veggie he likes)
What do you do for lunch? How or what do you prepare ahead? What is your favorite prepared food you like?
That's what I have so far. Any help would be appreciate it. thank you.

HI! Thats great of you to want to start your son on low carb! The first thing to do is make sure e really wants to do this... which I think he does based on your post. There is actually alot of things he could have for lunches. I am a college student, and dont really have alot of options either, but I know my caffateria and I am sure your sons serves hamburgers. He could have that without the bun and salas. I have string cheese, slim jims, pepperoni allot for snacks. If he likes pork rinds, those might be a good chip substitute. Does he have a microwave at school? He could bring hot dogs, or left overs like chicken or beef with some veggies or cheese. I also love casseroles, they are easy to make delicious, and they last like a week. Also sugar free jellow is a great dessert! Another lunch idea would just be lunch meat and cheese rolled up with cream cheese, mayo or mustard. Thats all I can really think of at the moment, but feel free to ask me any more questions and good luck!

Unfortunately they don't have a micro. I think I'm having him buy a LC bread and make ham and cheese sandwishes and LC PB with SF Jelly. Maybe by him adding lettuce and tomato to his ham and cheese will help him sneak in those veggies. Thanks so much for your help. I appreciate it. He'll be here in the summer with me and I will start to teach him how to cook basics and also take him shopping with me to help him understand what's good for him.

Thats great, but if he is starting on induction, then bread and helly isnt a good idea, but i would just say its better than white bread! and hes younger right? so maybe just cutting back on carbs is a good idea

My 12 yr old daughter began last week. She is down 8 lbs. She began at 190 so almost identical stats to your sons.
She has salads at school or hamburger no bun, pizza with just the toppings and a salad etc... these are days she doesn't bring a lunch. Which so far she hasn't so she did this without us making her a lunch for school just her learning how to make her meals work which is good it's teaching her how to make smart choices from crap offerings lol.
Wednesday we are going to the store to buy her some things to take for lunch so she can have a bit more control over her foods during school days.
I wish you and your son much success. Keep us posted.

Thanks RhondaK I apreciate your post. I'm glad to see that it is working for your daughter. Yes little changes like removing the bun from the hamburger helps. It's better to start now instead of letting the situation get out of hand. I will def. keep you posted.

Update: Megan is down 7.5 lbs since last Monday ( had to buy new scale other one was off). She's VERY happy and eating her omelette with cheese sausage and shrimp right now. We're gonna go play basketball in a bit.

Hey, i've just gotta put my two cents in:
First, its so wonderful you're working hard for your son's health. A lot of parents are so worried about a kid's feelings that they forget about their *lifespan*! So his dad is really set to support him on getting into better health? YAY!

1) I would really, REALLY reccomend that you encourage your son to not bother with all the low carb products that are meant to substitute for high carb junk. desserts from the recipe section of this website are great (simple, and yummy)- suggest the cream and sf pudding mouse for when he needs a treat. It's probably better to introduce the high sugar substitutes once in a while after he's gotten the hang of things.

2)I would also encourage him to bring bag lunches. This way he isn't tempted to sabotage his health with "just a bit" of the high carb foods there- and he will avoid ridicule for doing "strange things" with the cafeteria food. low carb bread sandwiches are a good way to go if he won't eat meat and cheese sandwiches.

3)have a frank talk with your son when he's ready, and make sure you, his dad, and your son are all on the same page before he starts this. i can't imagine how frusterating it would be to invest the energy, time, and fridgespace to his health if he really isn't ready to do it yet.

My little sister is the same age as your son, and she recently brought up the topic of health. our family has been overweight since around the time she was born, and she has awful habits. when we talked about health and weight, she was AMAZED that weight and nutrition can affect how long your life is. i explained in terms of me- "if I were to stay at this weight and eat these foods (mac and cheese, white bread, soda, etc) for the rest of my life, i could easily die early- 5, 10, or 15 years early." then i explained that i was always available to help her out if she needed it- but the thing was- SHE had to bring it up. otherwise, it would have seemed like an attack on her "fatness." She's still struggling, but between the two of us, theres no guilt about weight (i'm so thankful for that!)

Best of luck to your son and you, it's great that he's reading the book! please keep us posted on how he's doing.

sassy, I was about your son's weight at his age (211 in 5th grade..) and now that I look back I wish that I would have started earlier.

Pack his lunches for him, school lunch is usually junk and french fries.

Set a goal weight that if he reaches he will get a reward (BMX bike maybe?)

I am very proud of my son he's been trying very hard to loose weight on his own. After talking with his dad about how series it is for him to eat healthy and to buy the right foods he is slowly but surely trying. I considered SB and have talked to him about the many good things on the diet. It teaches him on the long run what is healthy, and to pick the right foods. This way he will learn what is causing weight gain. I will be picking him up on Easter week and we are traveling together to see my family in MA. He is soooo exited as I am to see each other. I miss him dearly. During that time I will take him to the supermarket and teach him the right choices. I also have my other kids on a SB like diet. They are easy weight gainers. anything they eat they are gaining weight, so far after the holidays the have been doing pretty well, and now I'm choosing the right foods for them. I no longer give them white bread, mac and cheese or fatning cakes, but substitute it with healthy snacks with whole grains and lots of fruits. They also love veggies and ranch too as I do, so this is working out very well. The reason kids are so chubby in America is because of all the advertisements and the hc snacks outthere with logos from disney, and all the cool characters they like. But we as parents need to teach our children what's healthy and what's not.
Rhondak: I am so very proud of you for what you are doing for your daughter. That is sooo great to hear. Keep the updates, I love to hear how wonderful is working out for her. I am sure she's very happy with the results and also learning along the way the right way to eat.
Sacharine: Thank you sooo much for your advise, he is still struggling with the issue since his dad is not very informed on how series this is, but soon enough I will have him with me and teach him.
epix: That is such a great idea. Wow thanks so much, I didn't even think about that. I will mention that to him and see what happens.
Thanks guys I will keep you updated.