How to explain to my kids I'm dieting?

It's hard to know, but I would try to keep it towards health and not mention weight loss at all.

Kids notice more than you'd think, even at a young age. Health was never mentioned when my mom dieted, so I thought just losing weight was the important part. I copied her fad diets and once decided to just have rice and water.

I tell my kids that their body is still growing so the calories bit is not something they need to worry about. At their age the focus is on nutrition to help their body develop well. They need to focus on getting in some good food and not just their beloved junky food. When we get older, our bodies stop growing and we need only a certain amount to stay in a healthy range. For that reason, I focus on calories as well as nutrition. I also explain that sometimes adults stop moving around so much like kids tend to do. As a result, I have to teach myself to love and embrace all that exercise again. I do tell them that as long as they continue to move around a lot and not just sit in front of video games, then they have that part made. I stress over and over that for them the focus is getting in some good foods to help their bodies to grow and develop properly.

Of course maybe the calorie bit shouldn't come up at all, but I have been discussing it with my husband and they hear it.

My teenager came home and told me that he learned that cheese is not good to put on broccoli because it is too high in fat. I do not want my kids to be afraid of food or fats. I told him that people say that because fat has more calories. In a good well rounded diet, cheese and fat are not enemies. The bigger problem is that adults sometimes go out of whack with their portion control and don't exercise enough. I have stressed to my teenager that his body is growing and that food is important for that. He doesn't need to restrict it. He just needs to watch the junk. In the meantime, he now goes to the gym and does a little bit of weight lifting. I talk about how food fuels your exercise, etc.

I'm not the best model but I try to model at least my thinking about making better choices at times because I think they need to also look at what they choose for food.

How old are they? I mean I don't think you have to explain anything to them. You do the food shopping so buy cleaner foods (fruits, vegetables, turkey, chicken etc) and just introduce them and substitute those foods with any crap they normally eat. Plus if they cry about it just tell them to go get a job and they can purchase whatever they want.

You are learning to eat healthy ... Good for you!

My seven yr old was taught a lot about "healthy eating" in school (yr 1). Some of it was good and it seems to be built on this year.

We have just been building on what the school is teaching. We explain that in years gone by we didn't make the healthiest choices regarding food and exercise and now we want to put it right so that we can do all the activities that the kids want to do.

We have had to talk about it a a lot as some of what the school is teaching I don't completely agree with, especially as my 7 yr old is very fit & active and needs the right food to keep her strong.

just be honest, but emphasise the fit, healthy and strong side rather than the body image.

How about "all good chefs weigh their ingredients!"??

That's a good one!

that is all you need to say. As a social worker, I see parents trying to overexplain things to kids all the time.....they don't need to know more than that. Just focus on the health aspect if they do ask questions; if they don't ask questions, no need to discuss it further.

I don't have kids yet but what you've mentioned sounds good. Also, perhaps something along the lines of "I'm trying to eat healthier so you guys will know how to eat healthy!" would be appropriate!

Edit to add: I just saw your post directly above mine! You could say "I'm trying to be healthier in general for my beautiful children"

Make sure its not "a Diet". Let them know its a healthy lifestyle change. I told my daughters I needed to eat healthier so I would be able to keep up with them as they get older nad faster. They do ask lots of questions dont they?

I don't say anything to my kids about it. They're only 6 & 2 so they're rather oblivious to everything anyway.
My six year old did ask me the other day why I shrunk, lol. He was like "Are you turning back into a little girl?".. it was really cute. I just explained to him that I have been exercising a lot lately and we have all been eating a lot of good food because that is how we take care of our bodies. He was fine with that explanation. We don't talk about dieting, weight loss, "fat" is a bad word in our house.
I have recently majorly cleaned up my family's diet because I felt like I was eating well but feeding the kids junky kid food crap way too much... so we're all doing it together. I don't think that kids care all that much. We've never talked badly about ourselves so I don't think that my two know yet that some people can dislike things about themselves.