by Ruth Woodhouse

Created on: March 21, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

I am one of those people who has been battling to get down to an ideal weight and then maintain that weight since I was a child. The first time I joined a weight loss club I was just 13 years old. That was back in 1973. I was about 3 stone overweight at that time - and in those days that was a lot.

These days childhood obesity is such a major issue and kids are registering the most terrifying weights at very early ages. I've heard of young teenagers who weigh in excess of 100 kilos and my heart bleeds for them because I know what it's like to be a fat kid and I know too how hard it is to overcome excess weight problems that were established in childhood. But I was never anything like that sort of weight in my teens, so I know these kids are going to be doing it even tougher than I did - particularly as they live in a society that's full of convenience foods that weren't such an issue for me. These kids need lots of assistance, advice and support to change their lifestyle as soon as possible. Our society needs to get really serious about doing creative things to help overcome this major obesity epidemic. A lot of the suggestions I've heard in the media have been less than helpful. We need some empathetic nutrition experts to put their heads together and come up with a whole lot of ideas to develop a workable campaign which will enable kids to conquer their mountains of weight and encourage them all the way. There has always been such a terrible stigma attached to being overweight - and I'm afraid that all the media about it lately will only be serving to make overweight kids feel even more like objects of ridicule and social outcasts.

I can't say I'm personally in a position to provide the answers for these kids - but I do know what it's like to fight this fight long term - and I do know what definitely doesn't work. Anything that is gimmicky and requires somebody to deprive themselves of all comfort food is destined for failure. If it's not something you could live on for the rest of your life, forget it. Don't waste your time or money and make yourself miserable trying all kinds of diet pills, meal-replacements and diets that require you to eat just certain and severely limited foods every day, to the exclusion of others. They will just drive you mad and you'll be ravenously hungry and bad-tempered - till you inevitably become so unhappy you throw in the towel and go on a binge. Where's the sense in that? Millions of people have been there, done that so many

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