My parents think i'm unhealthy, how do i tell them I'm fine?

Question

In the past year I've lost 25 pounds. I'm only in highschool so my parents are really concerned about me becoming so thin. I eat healthy, yet my family is constantly watching everything i eat. They think I'm anorexic I think, but in all honesty I'm just trying to live a healthy lifestyle. My BMI index is regular and if i lost ten pounds i would still be regular but probable a lot slimmer, but my parents keep telling me I'm not allowed to lose anymore weight. How do I get them off my back about my eating habits? I know they want the best for me, but I'm perfectly fine!

Answer 1

Go to your doctor and have a physical. That should answer everyone's question.

Answer 2

For dealing with most typical parents, compromise is the best way to go. Offer to get a physical exam at your family doctor with your mom going with you and let the doctor determine if you're healthy or not. If your BMI is actually normal and your eating habits are healthy as you say, your doctor will agree with you and give your parents an informed, professional opinion. It's hard for parents to argue with doctors unless they're doctors themselves.This way, they know that you're fine on all fronts.

Answer 3

You need to sit down with them and establish a system of measures of health. Once you and they are fully bought into a way to evaluate health, then its very straightforward.

There are negotiation tactics that you can use to strengthen your position or weaken it.

The weakest position you can take is the one you hate for them to take: Im an authority because Im the parent.. or in your case Im the authority because Im me and Im a teen. If you dont like it when they assert authority-role based authority then they wont like it when you attempt to do the same.

A stronger position to take is to set, as the foundation, that you are as interested in your health as they are, so lets work on whats healthiest and best for you together. Do your homework, and bring in texts. Bring in pamphlets from your doctor. You can even schedule a visit with your Primary Care Physician to ask ways to test optimal healthiness in people of your age/gender/ethnicity. The BMI is a first step in this direction, but its relatively weak. There are much more solid metrics (measurment methods) that you can use.

After they have agreed to a way to measure optimal health, then you need to show that you are there.

You could even, purposefully step a little outside it, and then when they see it and say something, or its been there for a little while you go to them and say I was outside the best, or not doing the best by ___ and then move toward it. Parents hugely respect the capacity of their children to admit when they are wrong, to take responsibility for righting the wrong, and to succeed in righting the wrong. That is going to give you a strong position. Dont try this if you are a control-freak. Parents see right through that, and it offend them.

I would suggest that you walk into this with an open mind. When your mind is closed they consciously or unconsciously see it and they close theirs. Walk into it and find a solid real way to measure when you are healthiest, and when you are doing unhealthy things that are going to do things like give you 50 years of heart-problems, self-esteem issues, and will drive you to drive your kids nuts (if/when you have them). Dont do the things that take away your future ability to choose, like hurt yourself permanently. Do do things that show that you are maturing, and are becoming a functional healthy adult. Do your homework, and be mature, responsible, and reasonable.