Movativated my 11 yo son but where can he go?

personally i wouldn't have him count calories, but teach him how to make healthier choices. Maybe you 2 can go on walks after dinner. Focus more on things he can do for the rest of his life. Do small changes right now. He is still young.

what if you set him up an account on sparkteens and just fibbed his age a bit, and supervise his use on the site?

Maybe instead of having him count calories, have him count servings (i.e what will fit in the palm of his hand) as per a healthy food pyramid system.

Have him try to meet vegetable, fruit, wholegrain, lean protein etc goals, with just one or two sensibly sized treats. And exercise goals.
The actual calories for a child aren't so much of an issue, as just turning them into quality ones.

Children shouldn't be tracking calories - they should be learning how to make healthy food choices and be active!

Encourage him to help you cook lots of veggies and get him into sports or other regular physical activity. Foster a desire to be healthy.

This.

http://www.amazon.com/CalorieSmart-Handheld-Calorie-Counter-CS80S/dp/B002M3O5UE/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1322161354&sr=8-12

How about a device for him to use?

I wish I knew at 11 what I know today and I'm still learning about nutrition and fitness every single day. I really don't see how it gives a child a complex when they are aware and armed with the knowledge to make good choices in life.

Weight Watchers may allow tweens either online or may have group meetings for that age group. You're a good mom, Happy Thanksgiving!

Portion control, good food choices and a year round sport. Like get him to join the swim team. Great sport. Both my boys are on the swim team (almost 17 and 8) and they are lean and fit and athletic. It's a great individual AND team sport. He can race and try to beat himself...improve his times.

I was 12 when I joined WW forever ago. I went with my mom and it was fine. Did I count calories? sure did, they have a set guideline for tweens and teens. Did it give me a complex? no because I asked to do it. What gave me a complex is being made fun of for being the fat kid in the class. I became a lifetime member at age 15 - proudest day of my teenage life.

Here I am now almost 29 and have great knowledge on how to lose weight - gained weight due to medical issues that were pushed aside - NOT because I wasn't eating healthy.

IDK if you can get online acces for him, but you may beable to find a local meeting that could help. If not you could always just make a spread sheet for him in excel that will allow him to enter his own stuff, and you can show him how to look calorie information up online if need be.

I think having him count calories, at least for awhile until he gets in the swing of things is a good idea. Knowing what and how much he should be eating as well as what "just a granola bar or just a couple cookies" can add up to will help him learn how to make good choices. It is one thing to talk about healthy food and portions, another to see it in tangible numbers (like getting a test back that said "Try Harder" but doesn't assign a grade or show which questions you got wrong). Make it into an experiment, measure out a true serving of his favorite foods (12 chips or 15 french fries etc) and assign it its calorie value, then measure out a serving or a healthy food he would be willing to eat and assign it its calorie value, then talk about the difference in the volume of food and the difference in calories. Have him serve himself a "portion" of say rice or cereal or even juice, then compare it to what a portion should be. If you can find a tween/teen site that you think is acceptable, I would just lie about his age.

what if you set him up an account on sparkteens and just fibbed his age a bit, and supervise his use on the site?

and teach him it's ok to lie?

I agree with others, just teach him good habits.

My children are 23, 21, 15 and 10 (girl, boy, girl, boy). All have face genetic and environmental factors that predispose them towards being heavy (and the older two are overweight). When the oldest was 10/11, I asked for help everywhere and all I got told was that I would hurt her self esteem. Which was frustrating because she was already aware of being overweight. All it takes is one trip trying to buy clothes for a preteen girl to get that.

I have been more proactive with the second two and they are within normal ranges so far. But the youngest is not very coordinated as he has Asperger's and is almost surely destined for a computer job. I will be giving him some tools as I think he is ready for them as he will always need to watch his weight. He will be able to understand that calorie input needs to equal calorie output and I am helping him establish some healthy habits while he is still at home.

My main point is that you know your child best. If you think some help is needed, do what you think is best. Being overweight at any time of life brings with it some negative stuff whether you mention it, don't mention it, whatever. In some ways, you can't win as a parent whose child is overweight. Even though we can affect some change, we do not have complete control over all the factors in a child's life that makes this happen. We are blamed for the results after being told that you can't do this and you can't do that. It is best when you can start out making completely healthy choices for your child from the gitgo but, well, many of us do not start out as perfect parents and we often have wrong ideas about food. portions and what is necessary for health. I actually have very few parental regrets (in terms of the grown children) but this whole area holds the ones that I do have. It wasn't like I wasn't trying, but i would make it a higher priority if a had a do over.

On the other hand, any change you can make in your family's food culture for the better will help. This is a journey, not an event, and sometimes a rather long and difficult one. I am talking about things like making water the go to drink rather than soda or tea. thinking through if every celebration revolves primarily around food and how you might be able to make incremental changes. Having healthy snack choices available. etc. etc. For the most part, whatever helps you is likely to help him as well.

And if you find a website like that, please let me know!