Teenage daughter wants to "tone up"

When I was that age I signed up for a kick boxing class for women a few blocks from my highschool.
Loved it! Also, boxing. It can be very empowering for a girl to learn things like this plus she'll "tone up" as well.
This was at a kickboxing/boxing place so the people there were athletic and not dieters, good role models to be around.

While going to the gym is great she may be exposed to people with unhealthy ideals/ideas.
I really think you should find a fun fitness activitiy, exposure to the desperation of the fat loss/fitness industry can cause problems where there were none before. That's just my opinion as slim teen with obese mom back in the day.

My daughter (soon to be 14) says she wants to tone up. She is by no means overweight and doesn't need to actually lose weight. She is about 5'6" or so and weighs 113 (I think). She wears a size 0 in juniors. I want to support her efforts but I want to make sure we're not going down a slippery slope. She LOVES food so I'm not worried about her starving herself but I want to make sure we're doing this in a healthy way.

Any tips or suggestions I can give her? She really just wants to tighten up and tone. I know - what's there to tone on a 113 lbs size 0 body right??

I'm thinking maybe just some hand weights and body weight exercises. Maybe some light cardio here and there. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

Why not go to the gym together then you can monitor and support a healthy exercise regime. I think I would be talking to her more about fitness maybe rather than anything else because you can the slim but unfit. If it's a no about the gym what about school sports etc? They would be my thoughts anyway.

You should teach her about fitness and nutrition now. So she will be ahead of the curve when she is older. Just saying that she doesn't need to lose any weight and you are worried that if she doesn't exercise she will be on a slippery slope is absurd. The only slippery slope she will be on is the slope to obesity.

Any tips or suggestions I can give her? She really just wants to tighten up and tone. I know - what's there to tone on a 113 lbs size 0 body right??

Right just wait until she is obese. Thanks mom

I think this such a great window of opportunity. You can teach her true health versus starving/exercise cycle. You can teach about fueling workouts with more calories. I can't wait to teach my kids about the science of food. I don't know any parents that teach their kids about all of this. I have read that over half of teen girls are on diets. They are learning from each other and online- you have a chance to give her real information. Plus, you can teach her not to be scared of gyms and weights. I did weights at that age for swim team.

I think you misunderstood my comment. By slippery slope I meant that I didn't want her going in the direction of feeling like she needed to be super skinny and lose a lot of weight. I never said that she didn't need to exercise. I never said that I didn't want her to be healthy. I said that she didn't need to lose actual weight. She is healthy and right where she should be for weight (according to growth charts). In today's society it's easy for young girls to get caught up in Hollywood's ideal image of super skinny females. I want her to be healthy but I don't want her to feel like she needs to be super skinny to be beautiful or well liked.

I understood exactly what you meant. I just wanted to point out the alternative.

Great opportunity to encourage fitness. A size zero still needs exercise and "toning" (as in strength). A lot of gyms have rules regarding kids under 14 joining, but I'd find a fun class for her to join, team sports, etc. Encourage fitness for fun as well as exercise and hopefully she'll create healthy fitness habits for life.

Something like martial arts would be pretty cool, IMO. I would have been all over that if my mom had given me the option at 14 (but I'm also what they call "different" so just because I would have liked it doesn't necessarily mean your daughter will).

Swimming is a great way to tone up! If you look, there are lots of places that offer swim and swim lessons. Sometimes you can get a fitness membership that only includes the pool. I also like the idea from other posters about some sort of martial arts. Finally, the Chalean is a great DVD if you are looking to go that route. I use her tapes and have had great success in toning up

113, 5'6" is really small, but don't forget that weight does not equal level of physical fitness! I have a friend who is 5'8" and close to 200 pounds who has a higher endurance and more muscle mass than my 5'8" 120 pound friend. The 120-pound friend can barely jog half a mile, even though she's really thin.

That being said, at age 14, I can only imagine that she is feeling insecure about her body... it happens to everyone. Like everyone else here said, I think that you should take an active role in her fitness. Perhaps go over the options for signing her up for sports that put her in a group setting with a responsible coach. Volleyball, swimming, softball/baseball, gymnastics, martial arts, basketball, or dance all sound like sports easily accessible for teens and would probably be offered by her high school. As a plus, if she thinks about college in the future... they're another activity to add to her list of extra-curriculars on college apps!

If she isn't interested in sports, consider signing up for a gym (I know that they offer free gym memberships at community centers as long as you're in the district/neighborhood where I live) with her. If you have the money or really want to make sure she's training correctly, perhaps think about signing her up for a few sessions with a personal trainer. Nothing too serious... I would interview a couple of them before choosing the correct one... but it might be a way to get her on a routine that would emphasize building muscle in a healthy way, and would give her someone to talk to about her goals that can make sure that they're safe and reasonable.

Since I was 14 years old a little less than ten years ago, I can remember that it was hard to be at-peace with my body, but it was even harder to stick to an exercise routine that was consistent! If she's really serious about this, you need to make sure she's doing it the right way. If it turns out that she's not so serious about it (which is a definite possibility), she will taper off in a few weeks and you won't have much to worry about.

My daughter (soon to be 14) says she wants to tone up. She is by no means overweight and doesn't need to actually lose weight. She is about 5'6" or so and weighs 113 (I think). She wears a size 0 in juniors. I want to support her efforts but I want to make sure we're not going down a slippery slope. She LOVES food so I'm not worried about her starving herself but I want to make sure we're doing this in a healthy way.

Any tips or suggestions I can give her? She really just wants to tighten up and tone. I know - what's there to tone on a 113 lbs size 0 body right??

I'm thinking maybe just some hand weights and body weight exercises. Maybe some light cardio here and there. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

Have her do weight training and start taking protein shakes.

My daughter is 6 and I encourage her to work out with me when I'm stretching doing push-ups etc. Not because she needs to lose weight, she's perfect of course, but because I want her to know that being fit and healthy is much more attractive than being holocaust thin and unhealthy like fashion magazines portray.

M16yr old daughter lifts weights with me every morning.... and heavy ones too.

But if you are not up for or into that, maybe some Cha Lean or Jillian Michaels Dvd's from walmart.

Is that safe!!! Surely her bones are still developing.

I'm confused by this question...care to elaborate?

Weight training actually helps to increase bone density, which is why it's an excellent thing for women to do at any age...and unfortunately that so many women shy away from it in fear of "bulking up". Knowing this mother is a heavy weight lifter, I would assume she eats plenty of calories with a good macro balance and has her daughter do the same.

I might be wrong but I thought heavy weights could cause muscle to pull on growing bone plates. Nothing to do with bulking up. Just isnt the skeleton still being formed at that age?