How to lose weight for an 11-year-old child: an integrated approach, proper nutrition, physical activity according to age, advice and recommendations from pediatricians and nutritionists

Weight standards by age

Before comparing numbers, it is important to remember that each child is individual and it is necessary to take into account the child’s growth. But there are still weight limits that must be respected.

Children aged 10-11 years have an average height of 135-145 cm. In this case, the optimal weight is considered to be in the range of 32-39 kg for boys and 30-38 kg for girls. The genetic characteristics of the teenager should be taken into account. If the parents are large enough, then a deviation of 2-3 kg in a larger direction is allowed.

Children aged 12-13 years have an average height of 155-160 cm. With such standards, weight can vary from 40 to 55 kg.

If the child is above average height, then parents should take into account the norms for an older child.

A set of exercises for losing belly fat in a child

Physical activity and proper eating habits will definitely help you lose a couple of unnecessary pounds. Therefore, we have prepared a small daily set of exercises that may help tighten the stomach, sides and thighs of children aged 10 years.

Bike . Lie on your back, legs up at an angle of 90 degrees, bend your knees and imagine that you are pedaling.
Push ups . Are you thinking about how your child can lose weight and lose belly fat? There is a simple and quite effective exercise. Just do push-ups so that the maximum load is placed on the abdominal muscles, and not on the arms.
Book. Lie on your back, place your hands up on the floor. Now simultaneously raise your limbs towards each other. The task is to reach the foot with your fingertips. It’s not easy for children right away, and not just for girls! And if you “love” the exercise, your child will quickly lose weight in his stomach and even pump up his abs!
Tilts. It should be done not only to the sides, but also forward and backward. Easy, simple and useful.

If you practice “with motivation,” the results will already be visible in a month or two. Support your child and remind him to exercise. The main thing is not the number of “times” or approaches, but the correct execution technique and desire! Don't forget about your sore throat!

How can a child lose weight and lose belly fat without exercise?

If for some reason the above-mentioned complex is not suitable, then try to walk a lot in the fresh air, play active games with a ball (football, basketball, rugby, etc.). Try signing up for sports clubs. For example, dancing, swimming, figure skating, judo, athletics, acrobatics.

Disadvantages of excess weight in children

Not only adults should take care of their body and shape. Excess weight significantly complicates the life of teenagers. Firstly, it interferes with the child's activity. And at this age it is the main component for future health.

In addition, being overweight does not exclude the development of diabetes in the future. This disease is incurable and can eventually cause death.

Also, excess weight in a teenager will most likely cause complexes. After all, everyone knows that children can be very cruel in their expressions towards their peers.

What should parents not do?

How to lose weight quickly for an 11 year old child? Some adults, faced with the problem of excess weight in a child, take the wrong actions. For example, there are times when parents begin to reproach a teenager and even call him names. Such actions are prohibited, because the child will have a reverse reaction. He will withdraw and lower his self-esteem even lower.

There are also cases when teenagers are given excessive dietary restrictions and every movement the child makes towards the kitchen and refrigerator is controlled.

In this way, you can only cause a different reaction on the part of the teenager - he will start hiding with food from adults and may even start stealing it. Adults should support the child every step of the way to lose weight.

Only calm conversations and explanations can help, from which the child will draw the right conclusions.

How to motivate your child to lose weight

Some parents ignore their child’s excess weight, hoping that it will go away with age. Others, having noticed extra pounds on their child, turn his life into hell with the help of motivation and prohibitions. Both are wrong. The child does not need to be motivated, he needs to be helped. Help implies not only interest, but also the direct participation of parents in creating favorable and safe conditions for losing weight.

Personal example for a child

Many parents believe that obesity is a genetic problem. If the grandmother is fat, the mother is fat, the child is fat, then it’s definitely genetics. In fact, obesity is not inherited from generation to generation. Metabolic speed is determined by genetics. It is formed during pregnancy. Erratic eating and excess weight gain by a pregnant woman increases the child's chances of facing the problem of excess body weight in childhood or adulthood. This won't necessarily happen, but it's likely. Obesity is a behavioral problem. By acting in a certain way, the grandmother set an example for the mother, and she became an example for her child.

To help your child lose weight, you need to change yourself and serve as a personal example. Parents who do not change their own eating habits and limit their child’s food intake, reinforcing this with the words “you should lose weight” or “look, other children are thin, and you...” can traumatize the child’s fragile psyche and develop complexes. Do you want to help your child? Change your diet for the whole family and start leading an active lifestyle.

Change your child's eating habits

Poor eating habits lead to excess weight and eating disorders. We list the most common eating disorders:

Strict rules for eating - “You must have porridge for breakfast”, “Eat breakfast yourself, give dinner to the enemy.”
Finishing – “You have to eat everything”, “A spoon for mom, a spoon for dad.”
Food prohibitions - “Chips are harmful”, “Sweets make you fat”, “Don’t eat after six.”
Food rewards - chocolate for getting an A, candy for going to the dentist.
Lack of entertainment and socialization - parents are “homebodies”, and food is the only pleasure.

When parents set strict rules for eating and force the child to finish eating, they destroy his connection with his own body. The child loses the ability to understand when he is full and when he is hungry. If you did this before, stop doing it.

Food bans for children are especially painful. They give rise to a persistent conflict between “harmful” and “tasty”, which can lead to bulimia. The child will always find a way to get banned. For example, being capricious, eating on the sly, begging for sweets from your father or other relatives. Every time he will feel guilty for eating forbidden foods. If prohibitions are seasoned with words about losing weight, a corrosive feeling of shame will be added to the feeling of guilt. It should not be banned, but replaced.

Rewarding with food creates the opinion in children that ordinary food is not tasty. To help your child eat properly, don't make food a reward.

The lack of entertainment, going to the cinema, theaters, circus and visiting people deprives the child of the opportunity to choose entertainment when he is bored. Having grown up, such children suppress any desire with food. If you're a stay-at-home parent, change (calorizer). This also includes holidays, when parents reduce everything to a feast instead of coming up with an interesting program for the whole family.

Modern children spend too much time on the Internet and watching cartoons. Many people eat at this time, so it is advisable for parents to teach their child to eat at the kitchen table. Lead by example!

Consider the interests of the child

Not all children love healthy foods. All over the world, mothers teach their children to eat healthy food with the help of original sandwiches and colorful lunches. They even take a creative approach to preparing porridge. This works, because children love bright and unusual things.

You are mistaken in thinking that your child does not like sports. He just didn't find something he liked. Help him and support his endeavors.

Teach your child to walk a lot. Playing with friends in the yard is great, but sooner or later he will grow up. The task of parents is to form a habit. Go for a walk every evening. Get him interested in active play or communication.

Find time for active family recreation. Time spent with parents is priceless (calorizator). The growing child will not immediately appreciate this and will want to stay at home. Use a trick - let him stay at home, and you take photos of what a great time you are having. Next time he will want to relax with you.

You can easily motivate your child to lose weight if you become full participants in the process. Personal example is an effective motivation, but also the most difficult. If you want to change someone, accept that you yourself will have to change. But these changes will be beneficial.

Author: Ekaterina G., nutritionist, fitness blogger (especially for) Copying this article in whole or in part is prohibited.

Features of the diet for teenagers

How to lose weight for a child aged 11? First of all, you need to understand that a diet for teenagers should not contain too strong restrictions based on fashionable nutrition systems for adults. For children, first of all, a balanced diet should be established with the predominant consumption of natural products.

A very important point is setting the diet. Teenagers should eat at least 4 times a day while on a diet. In percentage terms it looks something like this:

30% - breakfast;
10% - lunch;
45% - lunch;
15% - dinner.

This is the ratio to the total amount of food offered to the child per day.

The diet must include:

white fish;
lean meat;
low fat dairy products.
vegetables and greens.

Legumes are very useful. They have many microelements and vitamins. Legumes will also be able to saturate the child’s body for a longer time.

How to lose weight for a 9 year old child?

Extra pounds can cause low self-esteem in a student, which will negatively affect recognition among classmates and academic performance in academic subjects. Weight loss methods that answer the question of how to lose weight for a 9-year-old child at home require sufficient willpower and independence.

When choosing a diet, the daily calorie content of food is taken into account. Fatty foods are excluded from the daily menu. It is necessary to strictly control portion sizes and minimize sugar consumption. Your child's diet must include fiber-rich foods.

What products are prohibited?

Parents must clearly understand that the burden of responsibility also falls on them, even more so than on the child. Adults should develop a sample weekly menu for their child, taking into account all the nuances.

How to lose weight for a child aged 11? In the diet of a teenager who wants to lose weight, it is strictly necessary to remove the following foods:

sausages and sausages;
semi-finished products;
bakery products;
lollipops;
carbonated drinks;
fatty meats and fish;
fried foods;
fast food.

It is worth as much as possible to offer your child meals that you prepare at home yourself, because store-bought semi-finished products most often use margarine and flavoring additives that increase appetite.

The daily kcal requirement for a 10-12 year old teenager is 2300-2400, so the diet should contain no more and no less than this amount of energy. Your daily diet should include fresh fruits and vegetables.

There should be at least 4 meals per day, dinner no later than 6-7 pm. Below is a sample menu that should be followed during the diet:

Breakfast - milk porridge based on buckwheat or oatmeal and skim milk.
Lunch – steamed vegetable cutlets. To prepare them, it is recommended to use beets, zucchini, and cabbage. As a drink, you can offer apple compote.
Lunch – borscht with lean meat, vegetable stew, a slice of rye flour bread.
For dinner, it is better to offer a salad of fresh vegetables and fruit jelly.

You can use small pieces of fresh carrots or apples as snacks; they must be placed on a plate that will be constantly within the teenager’s reach.

Age characteristics

Many parents, when asked by a pediatrician why they are not struggling with their baby’s excess weight, answer that he will outgrow it anyway by the age of 14-15. There is some truth in this. Starting from 10-12 years old, modern children begin to grow rapidly, and the child “stretches” several centimeters per year. Of course, he becomes thinner and more angular.

But if he is accustomed to eating incorrectly, and continues to do so, then when his growth slows down a little, he will again begin to “grow in breadth.”

Before taking active measures to lose weight for your child, you need to find out about his age-related psychological characteristics:

Infants. Undoubtedly, a baby under one year old should be plump and well-fed. Obesity is bad for him too, but it rarely happens at such a young age. Infants are more likely to be undernourished than overfed, and it is extremely difficult to cram more food into a child than his body requires. Sometimes formula-fed babies gain weight too quickly. This is almost always the fault of mothers who pour more formula into the bottle than is written in the instructions, worrying that the child is malnourished.
From one to three years. This is the first period of intensive growth of the child, during which metabolic processes are very active. The baby moves a lot and needs a lot of food. If the child is not too active, then you should not overfeed him, otherwise he will rapidly gain weight. By the way, this is the best period when you can teach your baby to tasty and healthy food. For now, he does not yet have his own taste preferences and is largely guided by his parents.
From three to six. A psychologically difficult period when the baby begins to show independence and tries to insist on his own. And the easiest way to manipulate parents and loved ones is by refusing to eat or being picky. At this time, it is very important to find a way not to suppress the child’s personality, but also not to give in to him in such an important point as proper nutrition. If you cannot do this on your own, be sure to seek help from a child psychologist.
From six to 10-12 years. A child goes to school, and often the influence of peers is so strong that he is ready to abandon the healthy habits instilled by his parents. How to lose weight for a 7-year-old child, when everyone around him is crunching salted nuts and washing them down with cola. It’s hard for him to resist and make do with an apple or carrot. At this time, it is important to find the right approach and explain to your child the benefits of healthy eating.
Teenagers 12-18 years old. They still remain children, although they consider themselves adults. You can help a child lose weight at this age only when he wants it. Otherwise, he will not listen to any advice or will starve, following the example of his friends. To avoid problems with excess weight at this age, you need to instill in your child a taste for a healthy lifestyle from childhood, and this can only be done by personal example. When proper nutrition is a teenager’s own conscious choice, even if he allows himself forbidden goodies “for company,” he will never abuse them.

It’s not for nothing that we dwelled in such detail on psychological aspects. Any child, even a very small one, is, first of all, an individual who has the right to his own opinion and taste preferences. And problems with excess weight usually start from the head, not from the plate.

The second menu option for weight loss for an 11 year old child

How to lose weight for an 11 year old child? There are several possible answers. One of the mandatory points is following a specific diet. Below is another meal option for the day.

Semolina pancakes with apples and raisins, unsweetened tea.
Lunch – two sandwiches with rye bread and homemade liver pate, fruit.
For lunch, it is better to offer oatmeal soup with the addition of prunes.
Dinner may consist of boiled potatoes with steamed meatballs, dried fruit compote.

You can offer your child dried fruits as snacks throughout the day.

The nuances of proper nutrition

How can an 11 year old child lose weight? A teenager needs to introduce new dietary rules very carefully and gradually so as not to provoke protest from him. After all, after delicious and aromatic French fries, even an adult, much less a child, will not be able to switch to broccoli.

First you need to try to introduce a few new rules into the life of a teenager:

Absolutely do not eat after 19:30.
It's good to have enough breakfast.
Do not eat in front of the computer or TV.
Avoid eating candy and other sweets as snacks. Instead, use dried fruits, vegetables or low-fat dairy products.
Do not eat fried foods.
Avoid fast foods completely.
Prohibit any salads containing mayonnaise from your diet.

It is also very important to ensure that the child consumes the required amount of fluid. The average norm for a healthy child is 30-40 ml per 1 kg of weight. Of course, you need to drink water or dried fruit compotes, not soda.

Gradually you need to reduce the amount of sugar added to tea. There is no need to completely abandon it. The child's body must receive glucose in sufficient quantities.

Parental care

In order for a child to lose weight, parents will have to strictly adhere to several rules. But the result is worth it - a happy and healthy child.

Rule one: don't stuff it.

Let the child eat as much as he wants. For some reason, many parents think that if the baby has not eaten enough, then he gets up from the table hungry, but often this amount of food is enough for his body.

By forcing your baby to overeat, you do not allow him to feel the sensations of his body and confuse his body.

Rule two: food is not a consolation.

If a baby is sad, he doesn’t need candy, but your attention and care. Talk to him, caress him.

Rule three: do not “put” your baby on a diet to lose weight.

A diet for weight loss is a lot of stress even for an adult, let alone a child. In addition, dietary restrictions can cause disturbances in the functioning of internal organs.

Rule four: Be an example.

The child always watches his parents and strives to do everything “like his mother.” Don’t take bites yourself, eat less sweets, don’t forget about the first course. Fruits and vegetables are very useful not only for the growing body, but also for you.

Rule five: start monitoring the caloric content of your child’s food.

Sometimes it is enough to remove sweets, chips and cola from the children's diet. If, according to your calculations, there are too many calories in the menu, introduce restrictions gradually.

How can getting enough physical activity help?

How to lose weight for an 11 year old child without dieting? There is no clear answer to this question. Without proper nutrition, it will not be possible to achieve optimal results. But with the help of physical activity you can move the “ice” from a dead point.

Getting rid of fat cells in a child’s body is somewhat easier than in an adult. Diet alone can cope with this process, but not as quickly as we would like. Then you should apply moderate intensity physical activity.

Teenagers who do not participate in sports clubs can use morning exercises for these purposes. Thus, the kcal that children will receive per day will be used up faster.

The downside of being fat

The problem of excess weight in childhood has now become quite relevant. Previously, such a question arose quite rarely. The children were passionate about outdoor games and did not spend much time on laptops and other gadgets. Therefore, in the past, the dilemma of how to lose weight for a 7-year-old child at home was quite rare.

Obese children have lower resistance to infectious diseases. They are more likely to develop heart pathologies. Obese children are more prone to developing diabetes. In addition, such children may have serious difficulties communicating with peers. An overweight child often becomes the subject of ridicule from classmates.

Morning work-out

How to lose weight for children 10-11 years old? Morning exercises will be the first assistant if the teenager is absolutely not accustomed to sports. First you need to start with very simple exercises that will allow you to develop discipline for daily exercise without aversion to this process.

Before exercise, you need to warm up your muscles. To do this, you should walk in place for 10 minutes or run at a leisurely pace, if possible. In the warm season, you can walk quickly around the house several times.

Cardio exercise is very useful in the first weeks for burning fat cells. Such exercises improve metabolism in the body, and the body warms up faster. Then you can start doing abdominal exercises. This can be followed by squats and exercises using the lightest dumbbells. It is recommended to do morning exercises before breakfast.

Sport sections

If a child has a desire to go to any sports-oriented clubs, then this will be the best option for solving the problem with physical activity.

How to lose weight for a girl child at 11 years old? The answer is obvious - send her to a dance group for classes. This way you can kill two birds with one stone - increase physical activity and make the girl more relaxed.

The main thing is to remember that at first you should not expect instant results. It is necessary to understand that what is primarily at stake is the teenager’s health, not his achievements. Therefore, you need to rejoice at every new success in sports and encourage your child.

There have been cases when a teenager’s desire to play sports gradually increased, and he even achieved high results. Children who are too obese should not be sent to sports, which initially involve very heavy loads. Otherwise, the child will noticeably lag behind others and have complexes about this. Over time, he will completely refuse to study.

How can I help you

How to help your child lose weight quickly and with pleasure? In fact, a lot depends on the right parenting approach. The process of losing weight can become a real torture with many restrictions or an exciting game in which the main prize is a healthy body and a beautiful body. And smart and loving parents can turn punishment into pleasure.

Finding out the reasons

First of all, we need to find out why he gained excess weight. To do this, you should go to an appointment with a nutritionist. But before this, it is advisable to keep a food diary for at least a week, in which all the food that ends up in the child’s stomach during the day will be recorded. The skill of keeping a food diary will come in handy in the future when you independently develop and adjust your child’s diet.

This is easy to do at 3-6 years old, when the baby is in front of the mother almost all the time. But schoolchildren often do not admit to eating treats from bags, especially if their parents do not encourage it. Therefore, it is very important to explain to the child that the diary is not kept in order to convict him of disobedience, but in order to understand how much unhealthy food affected his excess weight.

If the nutritionist does not find any serious deviations from the principles of proper nutrition, and the child is still obese, the reason is most likely hormonal disorders. Then you will have to go to an appointment with an endocrinologist and undergo the appropriate tests.

Digestive problems often lead to weight gain, which can be identified and eliminated with the help of a gastroenterologist.

It is worth starting weight loss with a visit to the doctor even if the child has any chronic diseases. The attending physician will tell you how to choose the right diet and what to pay attention to when choosing suitable physical activity, so as not to provoke an exacerbation. If everything is done correctly, the child’s health may even improve.

Motivation

At any age, the process of losing weight will go much faster if the child becomes an active and interested participant in success. And for this he needs serious motivation.

Modern children very often do not even realize that excess weight is a serious problem. And even more so, they don’t understand why they should limit themselves if many of their peers live quite well as is.

Choosing the right motivation is already half the solution to the problem. And there are no ready-made recipes here - each child needs a special approach. We will give just a few examples of more or less successful motivations, but you may have to look for new techniques yourself:

Support. It's a lot of fun to lose weight with your mom. Try to explain to your child that you do not have the courage to cope with the problem of your own weight on your own, but with his support you will definitely succeed. Just be careful with the competitive element. Realizing that he is losing, the child may refuse to continue the game.
Super prize. Offer your child a desirable and significant prize for achieving a specific result: a bicycle, an interesting trip, etc. But the goals and deadlines must be set correctly. Six months is almost an eternity for a child. It’s better to let the time period be shorter and the prize more modest. And if he manages to win, say, six months in a row, then a super prize awaits him.
Change of image. This incentive is more suitable for teenagers, for whom it is very important to look stylish in the eyes of others. Offer your daughter or son a complete change of image, provided that they give up extra pounds: a trip to a stylist, buying new fashionable things, a modern hairstyle.

Some parents try to motivate their child to lose weight with monetary incentives. We don't recommend doing this. He must understand that he, and not his parents, need to lose weight first of all. And this is not a method of making money, but a reliable way to put your own body in order.

Eating habits

A nutritionist can best tell you what the diet of a child of a certain age should look like. We will not now repeat the common truths that the children's menu must include meat, fish, herbs, vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, high-quality vegetable oils and dairy products. And we won’t talk about the dangers of packaged “harmful foods” either - every mother should know about this.

But how can you develop healthy eating habits in a child and make sure that he chooses healthy food on his own, and not dubious semi-finished products? In this case, there are several fail-safe techniques:

Fresh food. The taste of freshly prepared food is much brighter than yesterday's food. Having become accustomed to eating only fresh food, the child will not want to eat canned food and semi-finished products.
Diversity. Even the most delicious and healthy foods become boring if you eat them constantly in the same form. Try to diversify the menu as much as possible, look for new recipes, get creative.
Easy preparation. Teach your child to cook delicacies with their own hands. If he likes this activity, then instead of eating treats from bags, he would rather prepare something tasty for himself.
Personal example. There is no way you can convince your child of the benefits of healthy food if you yourself eat poorly. The whole family will have to switch to the right diet.
Specialty restaurants. A visit to such establishments will convince the child that healthy food is prestigious and is served even in good restaurants.

With such a psychological approach to nutrition, even in the company of his peers he will not be embarrassed about his position. On the contrary, he will begin to defend it and, perhaps, become a useful example for someone.

Physical exercise

It is impossible to force a child to do exercises regularly. Or he will do it with great reluctance, not technically performing the exercises with one single thought in his head: “When will all this end!” There is no benefit from such training - it’s just a reason for unnecessary scandals in the family.

Here are some great tricks to motivate your child to exercise:

Personal example. With kids, everything is simple - they can easily be inspired by personal example, which is what we advise all parents to do. The benefit from this approach is twofold - the parents themselves will remain in excellent physical shape, and the child will perceive morning exercises as a natural process (something like washing or brushing teeth).
Section or studio. It is better to send older children to a dance studio or sports section, where they can train with their peers. These workouts are usually fun and competitive, and kids really enjoy them.
Health groups. It is problematic to force an overweight teenager to exercise, who has never done it before. Even the simplest exercises are difficult for him, and he certainly doesn’t want to do them surrounded by athletic, fit bodies. Special health-improving gymnastics groups, which are now available in every good sports club, can help here.
Leisure. Even the laziest teenager will probably not refuse an interesting excursion or fashionable sports accessories. Bicycles, rollerblades, skateboards, skates and skis are a great alternative to boring gym classes.

Important! Take safety precautions and invest in a few introductory lessons with a professional instructor. Having unsuccessfully fallen a couple of times on the asphalt, the child may refuse to continue classes. And the instructor will make sure that the first skills are easy and there are no injuries.

Family Affair

Losing weight for an 11-year-old child is a very difficult and sometimes unpleasant process. In order for a teenager to see the first results and become interested in this process further, it is better to support him in this matter with the whole family.

Everyone knows that proper nutrition has never harmed anyone, even if a person is in perfect physical shape. Therefore, following a diet with the whole family is not so difficult.

How can an 11-year-old boy lose weight without paternal support? Almost nothing. Therefore, it would be great to do morning exercises with dad or go to the gym. In this way, you can also strengthen a trusting relationship, which is very difficult to win with a teenager at this age.

Only love, understanding and support from adults will help a child cope with excess weight problems.

Charging for the whole family

Exercise should become a daily routine for the whole family. Agree, it’s not so easy to persuade a baby to do physical exercises in the morning if dad is lying on the couch watching TV. Start with a few exercises, and then you can increase the physical activity.

If your son or daughter needs help with exercise, help him. Later you can ask your child to help you.