A Conversation with Anne M. Fletcher, MS, RD
author of WEIGHT LOSS CONFIDENTIAL
You’ve written three books
about adults who lost weight and kept it off–what prompted you decide to
write a book about teens who lost weight?
I actually got the idea years ago, when my
overweight teenage son came home from camp and excitedly told me about
another boy he’d met who had lost 40 pounds. That’s when it occurred to
me that a great model for a book would be “teens helping other teens” with
weight management. My son lost more than 60 pounds when he was 18 and,
when he’d kept it off for a few years, I decided it was time to write the
book.
I was also troubled by the skyrocketing numbers
of overweight kids in our country and around the world and thought it was
time to offer some solutions.
How did you go about reaching
out to the 100+ teens we meet in WEIGHT LOSS CONFIDENTIAL’s pages? Was
it difficult to convince the teens profiled to participate?
I turned to schools, health clubs, weight
programs, friends, relatives, and colleagues, all across the United States,
even in other countries, to find formerly overweight teens who had lost
weight in healthy ways. I worked hard to find kids from diverse racial
and ethnic backgrounds–teens who could say, “I lost weight and you can
do it, too.”
Once I found the teens, I had to convince them to complete an eight-page
questionnaire. It wasn’t at all difficult to get the profiled teens to tell
their stories because they’re proud of what they’ve accomplished and want
to reach out to others.
How heavy were the teens before they started
losing weight, and where are they now?
I only included teens who had truly been
overweight, not kids who lost 5 or 10 pounds to look better. Before losing,
nearly 9 out of 10 teens met the medical definition of “overweight” (60
of them were very overweight), and the others were “at-risk of overweight.”
After losing, to be part of the book, the teens had to be at what they
considered to be a “comfortable” weight for about a year or more. And they
had to have lost weight in a sensible way. The teens’ average weight loss
is 58 pounds, and the average length of time they’ve been successfully
managing their weight is just over three years.
So are most of these teens now what we’d
consider to be “thin”?
All of the teens are at a weight that makes
them happier and healthier than they were before losing. And most of them
are at a weight considered to be healthy for their age. But they are not
all “thin” by societal standards. One of the most important goals of the
book is to help kids set a realistic weight-loss goal and to show them
you can be successful without looking like a skinny celebrity. As Sandra
D. says, “If you don’t have an ideal-size body, it doesn’t mean you’re
not an ideal person.” Their stories show that success is not just what
the scale says.
A lot of kids today are overweight–what
made your teens decide
to turn things around?
For most, it was a combination of things:
they wanted to look better and feel better about themselves; they were
concerned about their health; and they wanted to have better relationships
with their peers. Many of them were sick of being teased because of their
weight. Some of their stories would break your heart–this isn’t a society
that’s kind to overweight people, and kids can be especially cruel. But
the teens in my book rose above the cruelty and turned things around.
What did you learn from the parents you
interviewed?
First, they make it clear that kids need
to know that they’re loved unconditionally, regardless of their weight.
Both the parents and the teens also stress that the initiative for weight
loss has to come from the teen–if the teen’s not ready or isn’t motivated,
nagging, preaching, and complaining will only backfire. Mick J. told me,
“My desire to finally lose weight was internal. Before that, my mom nagging
me just made things worse.” Parents also emphasized the importance of providing
healthful foods, not having a lot of high-calorie foods around, and being
role models for healthy eating and exercise. Once the teen makes a decision
to slim down, parents stressed the need for providing them lots of support
and praise, no matter how small the changes are.
Was it difficult to be
unflinchingly honest when writing about your experiences with your son,
Wes?
It’s never easy to reveal personal information,
especially when it involves your own child. But, with my son’s permission,
I chose to talk about the issue because I want readers to know that my
son and I have “been there.” I shared the personal side, too, because it
shows that even if parents do what they think are the “right” things to
raise a healthy-weight child, he may still become overweight given a biological
predisposition and/or our environment–one that sets us up to eat too much
and exercise too little. My son’s story shows that if you give overweight
children the tools to succeed, they eventually just might do it.
How did the teens lose the weight–were
there any common threads?
The most striking theme is that there is
no one way to do it–teens have to find what’s right for them, as individuals.
About half of the teens lost weight on their own and the other half had
help from a professional or program. So that readers can find their best way for a teen to slim down, I share in-depth
stories of kids who lost weight in different ways and offer detailed guidelines
about choosing a weight-loss program. The book also offers a “shopper’s
guide” to weight programs, helpful Web sites, and other resources for healthy
weight management.
If you had to pick one
strategy that led to the success of these teens, what would the most important
one be?
Without hesitation, I’d say exercise. In fact, exercise (or becoming more physically active)
was the number one response when I asked the teens for their most important
weight-loss strategies and for
the most important things they do to keep the weight off. I was actually
surprised to see how dedicated these teens are to exercise–strength training
and running were the most common forms of activity. Less than a quarter
of them were involved in team sports, so kids don’t have to become “jocks”
to be fit. The teens offer strategies for overcoming self-consciousness
about exercising, getting started, and making physical activity fun.
What are some of the other themes that
jumped out at you?
A big theme was giving up or cutting back
on soda, and many teens said that drinking more water is one of their strategies.
They share their strategies for staying motivated, and how they cut the
fat, downsize portions, snack smarter, shift to healthier carbs, make better
restaurant choices, and manage emotions without eating. Most of them are
not meal-skippers, and they don’t deprive themselves of treats.
What’s the most important piece of advice
you can offer to teens who are struggling with their weight? To the parents
of such teens?
Know that you can succeed, because I found
more than 100 teens who did it. Don’t give up because it usually takes
time and at least several attempts to reach a healthier weight. Teens have
to do it for themselves–parents need to provide support and healthy foods,
but ultimately they have to let teens take the lead in finding a way to
lose weight and keep it off.
The teens in Weight Loss Confidential pave
the way for that to happen.
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