Don't want to embarrass my friend by pointing this out

Its generally a good idea to keep your eyes on your own plate- especially as concerns someone elses children.

I understand why you want to help though, and your intentions are good but that would just hurt everyone. Just like all of us, we each have to walk our own path.

I fail to see the problem in sharing what you have learned about eating healthfully and tracking your caloric intake with a teen. The sooner we get into good habits the better. I mean, if you just called her fat and tried to get her to go on a juice cleanse with you, that would be bad.

Agree

Me too. I'm not sure what's the best way to go about it, but adults and children are more obese than ever before but we just need to keep minding our own business?

Personally if it meant that much to me I'd ask if they wanted some info on weight management and give them the Sexy Pants link

Yes, mind your own business. I don't know any fat person that isn't aware they are fat. And especially if one is a large child or teen, they will have been made all too aware. If they want weight loss or management help from you, they will ask you. But otherwise, everyone has their own issues, pay attention to your own.

As is evidenced by this thread most people didn't know the right way to lose weight. I'd say it's your family, do what it takes to fight for them. Just because there's a lot of derp out there doesn't make the idea of sharing healthy weight loss options wrong IMO. Our current state of obesity? That's what's wrong and we need a good way to solve it. Personally I didn't know anything about calories until maybe college if not after, and even then there was so much derp that I couldn't put together a simple equation of calories consumed vs calories burned and how that would translate to weight loss at a certain pace. Just like some folks agree that a simple high school class covering this subject would be very useful, I would have appreciated having this info when I was younger

I get the idea of fighting for your family, I really do. My father died of diabetes-related heart disease at 57, my brother had cholesterol problems in his teens. However, everyone's body is different, everyone's life experiences are different, and weight issues are very personal. I'm sure most of us are on MFP in the weight loss section because we chose to make the weight loss journey on our own, not because our family or friends were "fighting" for us. My brother didn't become a brown belt in karate and drop 50 lbs because we "fought" for him or needed to save him, it's because HE realized he needed to get his health together. Again, most people who are fat are acutely aware of it, and let's not assume that fat people don't know anything about calories either - some of us have been on diets since before we could drive and have had "eat fewer calories than you burn" drilled into our heads. It's fine to try to help, but ONLY if it's asked for. Otherwise, don't stick your nose where it isn't invited.

Perhaps we just do not have an effective way of getting the information to those that need it and helping our families. To me that is what needs to be worked on. The whole idea of mind your own business when it comes to family and friends doing something that's detrimental to themselves can go to the other extreme, and, IMO leave us void of a sense of community

I agree with everyone who says "don't talk to her about it" but that doesn't mean you can't invite your friend and her daughter for a hiking trip or regular walks or suggest doing a C25K together. You could broach it, as "I'm really excited about this. Let's all do it together", and that way, you might be a good role model for the daughter and she might even approach you about how to get fit.