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Ummm....posting again because she should not be only 100lbs. And should not be "dieting" or cutting out food during her developmental years.
I would not assume she is going through puberty. In addition, Asians have a lower recommended BMI than non-Asians. I'm not saying she might not have been a little underweight at 100 lbs, but she was not severely underweight. Eating healthy foods will certainly not hurt her.
I would not assume she is going through puberty. In addition, Asians have a lower recommended BMI than non-Asians. I'm not saying she might not have been a little underweight at 100 lbs, but she was not severely underweight. Eating healthy foods will certainly not hurt her.
She is an exchange student so I am guessing she is between the ages of 10-17.
Asians have a lower cut off for when you get into the overweight category. Our overweight bmi# is 25. Asian = bmi# 23
But both variations have the same underweight categorizations (<18.5).
Ummm....posting again because she should not be only 100lbs. And should not be "dieting" or cutting out food during her developmental years.
I agree with you on this one. 110 lbs is a perfectly normal weight for her height. I think the OP is just concerned that this rate of gain will continue and the 10 lbs will turn into 30 or 40 lbs. That would not be good.
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when my student went to NYC with some other exchange students, all had gained at least 10 lbs but I have no idea how they are eating.
This is probably very much analogous to the "freshman fifteen" which is when students who are eating away from home for the first time (mostly girls, I think) gain weight because they are eating without restrictions.
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People are making too many blanket and uninformed statements here.
5'4" and 100lbs is not necessarily underweight depending on body frame/bone structure/ethnicity and other factors. And children/kids weigh differently compared to adults...its not the same as adding 5 lbs to every inch like for an adult. As a child, I looked fine at 5'3 and 100-105 lbs, but now I look fine at 5'3" and 115 as an adult, because my body has changed.
Just because you cook from scratch does not mean you eat healthy. You could be eating calorically dense and not nutrient dense foods. As well as refined carbs/sugars/fats/etc.
Being a foreigner myself, practically everyone in my family gained ALOT of weight when moving to this country. Mainly because in Europe they walked everywhere, without even meaning to walked many miles a day. Here, with the abundance of fast food, convenience food, huge grocers, cars, etc, walking anymore is almost nonexistent. Its considered exercise here (lol) when really it should be part of daily life, exercise is lifting weights, running, swimming, etc, not just walking around.
When I visit San Francisco, I eat out 3 times daily, but I rarely rent a car and just walk and take a few cabs. Although I am quite thin, I always lose a couple pounds, even with eating indulgently at restuarants three times a day, because I end up walking at least 5 miles a day without even thinking about it.
There could be any number or combination of factors weighing in here.
First, more frequent eating (every 2-3 hours) tends to raise metabolic function, and if that's what she was used to, it's possible her body is going into conservation mode. If the body thinks its nutrient level is dropping, it will store more; sort of like going into survival mode. An increase in empty carbs will do that as well. The body doesn't differentiate between empty carbs and starvation.
Lower fat content, contrary to our oh-so-brilliant American pyramid (yes, tongue-in-cheek), can be detrimental to weight maintenance and other things we don't usually associate with fats. It just depends on what kind of fat. Lower fats combined with a higher level of grains will leave her hungry, and her body won't be utilizing the nutrients in the way it's used to. The ratio of grains to other foods in each meal is probably one of the biggies in this country.
Spice is used for more than taste in almost every other country, and if she's used to chili and ginseng and ginger in her food, and had them suddenly removed from her diet, that can alter her metabolic function.
Higher growth hormone and other unnatural substances in all food production (including fruits and veggies) can wreak havoc in a body that's not used to consuming all the crap we have available here in the U.S. If you have a farmer's market nearby, you might try buying from there (and saving some money in the process).
Her probiotics may have also been thrown out of whack due to an increase in empty carbs, and that could cause her to appear to have gained even more weight, hence a possible explanation for what her parents were calling "rounder."
Simple thing to try? Raise veggie and protein levels, familiar spices, frequency of meals, and lower empty carb levels and see if those help.
Same thing happened with a Philippine exchange student we hosted. She was a US size "0" when she first arrived but left for home months later a nice round size of "8".
Americans need to get back to learning how to farm/garden and cook our own food instead of eating fast food. It's not just killing us but the rest of the world as well.
I moved the the US in 1979 (from Europe, before Europeans started gaining weight the way Americans do) and promptly gained almost 30 lbs - which I lost fairly quickly, but still. My brother moved here several years ago to go to grad school and did the exact same thing. Food is so abundant here, but so much of it is high in carbs, fat, salt...add the that fast food restaurants and the American habit of snacking, drinking soda, and exercising far less in the course of the day.
I think it's a combination of faux food and not enough exercise.
Um....5'4'' and 100 lbs...she needed to gain weight. Its called puberty/healthy weight and it parents need to get over it. If she was starving herself before at home out of volition or circumstance it would result in a large appetite when she began to eat again. Or she is just growing and having normal teen hunger. At 110 she is finally a healthy weight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lenora
I would not assume she is going through puberty. In addition, Asians have a lower recommended BMI than non-Asians. I'm not saying she might not have been a little underweight at 100 lbs, but she was not severely underweight. Eating healthy foods will certainly not hurt her.
Actually, that would be underweight for us, but Asians have a much smaller bone structure and in her country this is considered a very healthy weight. In fact, she told me that she was a bit fatter than many of her friends.
Quote:
Originally Posted by irongrl
I agree with you on this one. 110 lbs is a perfectly normal weight for her height. I think the OP is just concerned that this rate of gain will continue and the 10 lbs will turn into 30 or 40 lbs. That would not be good.
That is exactly what I"m concerned about. If she stays where she is, she'll be fine, but I've noticed that she's put on even more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chiroptera
I think it's a combination of faux food and not enough exercise.
Yes exercise seems to be a problem. We actually live in a very walkable neighborhood, by American standards. We can walk to a lot of different places from here and she has the option to get into sports at school. Unfortunately, she dropped out of soccer and hasn't signed on for anything else, so I'm going to be working with that. Also, she doesn't often decide to walk somewhere--she seems to be content with staying in and using the internet and now I think she's getting depressed, so I'm going to be working with that also.
Oh, and she really likes the fattening food here--last night my dd's debate team had an award banquet, but not with real food--it was a dessert banquet. We went over after supper and there were at least 20 kinds of cake and cookies! My student filled up her plate twice and ate it all, and at 16, I don't really feel comfortable telling her she can't do that--I feel that she has to make her own choices and live with the consequences, but I do try to talk to her and explain that this behavior will catch up with her, and she just doesn't understand b/c she's never had to deal with these kinds of choices before. And to tell the truth, I didn't behave myself very well either, but at least I understand what I'm doing to my body. I think. Well, back to the diet today.
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