How can I help my mother lose weight?

[andy smith]

My mother has been overweight since she had my sister 17 years ago. She has tried diet after diet and always gives up. Her health has been steadily getting worse as she gets older. I have tried rationalizing with her and fighting with her, and my sister has tried making her diet. Out of fear of ending up like my mother my sister became anorexic and bulemic at a young age. I have never had any weight issues at all. I have tried to find help online but 99 percent of anything covered is for parents helping their overweight children, not the other way around. I find it odd and unbelievable that there aren't other children with this issue. Please help me find a way to approach my mother about her problem, or even suggest somewhere or someone to take her to to help her see she has a problem she needs to fix.

But I do not want to hurry. I wanna be sure before I take any steps.

Please advice.

Andy

 

[judimac]

Andy I feel for you. You're right , the help is always the other way, and it's taken some hard talking for me to get my sons to start losing weight (they are in their 30's and I have struggled for years)
Unfortunately being overweight, and being alcoholic have similarities. Unless you want to do it for yourself then it doesn't happen. Doing it for someone else rarely works. BUT, if you could sit your Mum down and approach it from the " I know you're unhappy and I'm worried about your health and I'd love to help you" angle you may just turn her round. I know I'm biased but Slimming World have a programme where you can eat big portions, and you don't have to starve yourself, it's relatively easy to stick to, and in some parts of the country GPs can refer their patients and they don't have to pay. I am more than willing to talk to you or your mum if you send me a private message.

 

[Laura Croft]

Hi Andy,

I really applaud you for trying to do something to help your mum. However unless she wants to lose the weight, then she's never going to be successful. I think the best thing you could do is write her a letter letting her know how worried you are. You could even direct her to this site so she can see some of the diets (and more importantly) support that is available now but ultimately it needs to start with her.

x