my PE teacher is putting us on diets

For Lifestyle Fitness(it's like PE, but for girls, we do stuff like yoga, pilates, aerobics, etc), our teacher is making us go on diets.We are grade nine students - I don't think it's right to put teenagers our age on diets. I'm starting to think schools are much of the reason why there are so many teens with eating disorders. I remeber in grade 7, they made me put down my weight on a paper and write down how I would change it or a goal I'd have. I don't think any student in middle school should worry about their weight.

Kids need to eat alot because they are growing. They need to develope bone mass. Why are schools encouraging eating less at this age? I have never met a teenager that was on a safe diet, I think all safe diets in teenagers turn into something more dangerous.

My school is making us all go on diets and exercise more and record what we do. We have to write down our weight and say how much we want to lose. This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of.

Yeah, thats not legal.  Its also impossible unless your PE teacher moves in with you all and monitors you every meal.  Is it really a "diet" or is it eating nutrious foods or correct portions?  I have a feeling its just teaching you how people are supposed to eat as opposed to how people do eat.

yea she's encouraging us to i guess, but i don't know, it still doesn't seem right

What kind of "diet" is your teacher putting you on?

I know in Sports Med and Health Occ at my school they have kids track their calories for a while.

If they are higher, around where it should be for a teen, they don't tell them to eat less though.  They do tell them to look at WHAT they've eaten and how healthy it is.

Have they told you to restrict calories or just keep track of yourself?

she's telling us to keep track of ourselves, she's making us change our eating habbits and keep track.

she also said 15 is a 'very healthy bmi for women' isn't that under weight?

 

she also said that to lose 20 pounds you have to work out your muscles alot and a little bit of cardio, but she's stupid because if you want muscles youre going to gain weight

 

and she said you have to burn 3600 calories to lose a pound, is that true?

i don't think it's right to put teenagers on a diet who already have a low self esteem and stuff.

 

i totally understand. my gym teacher [for aerobics which is a lot like your lifestyle fitness class except we do step aerobics, turbo jam workouts,ect.] made us get weighed, and, for a grade, lose weight by the end of the semester. there is a girl in my class who is 5'5" 115lbs! she doesnt need to lose weight.

 the most embarassing part is its up for other gym classes to see, ones that don't have to write their weight down. i felt so bad about myself because i already hate my body and am so self consious about my weight :(

Original Post by xp0is0nxkissesx:

she's telling us to keep track of ourselves, she's making us change our eating habbits and keep track.

she also said 15 is a 'very healthy bmi for women' isn't that under weight?

 

she also said that to lose 20 pounds you have to work out your muscles alot and a little bit of cardio, but she's stupid because if you want muscles youre going to gain weight

 

and she said you have to burn 3600 calories to lose a pound, is that true?

i don't think it's right to put teenagers on a diet who already have a low self esteem and stuff.

 

I think changing your eating habits (assuming for the better) is a good idea. 

That's ridiculous. I can't believe a school would do that- it's not giving the right message to any of the students. I think that you should fight the ideas of this class and stand up for the healthy students.

that is not right at all.

please bring this to the attention of your parents, and other school officials immediatly!!

let them know, how this could ultimately trigger whole new generation of eating disorder patients

being healthy, and eating properly is one thing... but putting children on diets in their prime growth years is very damaging to their future health and self esteem. they will not get proper nutrients to fully develop properly, causing early osterporosis, stunted growth, loss of menstruation and a whole list of problems due to malnutrition

and for the record... 15 is NOT a healthy BMI!

shame on this teacher for telling you such lies and forcing unhealthy eating behaviours at such a young age...

what's next? "if you eat too much children, then just stick your finger down your throat and throw up till you're skinny"

dispicable.

and judging from your profile, it seems that your PE teacher has already got the best of you.

110lbs at 5'7?

YOU DON'T NEED TO LOSE 10LBS!!

If anything you need to gain 10lbs... you are already underweight.

why are you starting threads bashing your school system's unhealthy ways, if you are activily participating in them?

"my gym teacher made us get weighed, and, for a grade, lose weight by the end of the semester."

You should have refused to participate and got your parents to complain to the school because that's certainly not right.

At my school in PE we watched a lot of videos on the dangers of eating disorders and the teacher didn't believe in weighing students; she said it just embarasses people. Maybe in America things are different and they're allowed to be so intrusive but not in Australia.

I agree with the others - you need to tell your parents and report what your PE
 teacher is doing.  Encouraging healthy, nutritious eating and exercise is one thing - making you track your weight and report how much you want to lose is downright unethical.   

Besides being intrusive and an abuse of power, it is a direct violation of parental rights.  Putting teenagers on a diet, even when necessary, is not that far from a medical prespription, and no school has the right to assign medical requirements without the parents knowledge and permission. 

As a parent, the thought of that infuriates me.

She is making us chose a diet for ourselves and an exercise program for ourselves. She said our goal could be to lose or gain weight, but how many teenage girls want to gain weight?
I have told the teacher that this program is bad and encouraging teenagers to go on diets is wrong, but she said it's not and we need to be aware that obesity is a big program in North America and stuff. I told my parents and they think that this is really stupid as well. I'll let the councellor know on Monday and my parents said they'd give me a note to excuse me from this project but that would be embarassing because the kids would be rude and say something like "it's not like you can't lose some weight". I also told the teacher I eat peanut butter for protein and she told me it was horrible to eat peanut butter because of all the fat in it. I'll get  my parents to complain to the school.

Original Post by xp0is0nxkissesx:

She is making us chose a diet for ourselves and an exercise program for ourselves. She said our goal could be to lose or gain weight, but how many teenage girls want to gain weight?
I have told the teacher that this program is bad and encouraging teenagers to go on diets is wrong, but she said it's not and we need to be aware that obesity is a big program in North America and stuff. I told my parents and they think that this is really stupid as well. I'll let the councellor know on Monday and my parents said they'd give me a note to excuse me from this project but that would be embarassing because the kids would be rude and say something like "it's not like you can't lose some weight". I also told the teacher I eat peanut butter for protein and she told me it was horrible to eat peanut butter because of all the fat in it. I'll get my parents to complain to the school.

I signed up specifically to reply; first of all, case in point, your PE teacher is a douche. Ignore them. Peanuts and peanut butter are fantastic things to eat, but are calorie-dense - that doesn't mean it's bad for you. The high levels of monounsaturated fats found in peanut butter make it a healthful food to eat. Two things though, it does contain some amounts of high quality protein, but I look at nuts in general as more of a condensed fat source. For protein, try something leaner.

Secondly, when choosing which peanut butter to buy, look on the label, if you see "trans" anything, or anything except "peanuts" and maybe a tiny bit of added sugar or salt, don't buy it. Get the natural stuff.

Lastly, forget about the idea of losing weight at 110, 5'7. It really isn't worth it.

She is making us chose a diet for ourselves and an exercise program for ourselves.

In theory, there shouldnt be anything wrong with having students made aware of how nutrition including how using calories wisely can affect ones health.  This sounds though like a plan thats went horribly wrong.  First of all the focus should be on maintaining a healthy self through good nutrition and activity.  Secondly youve a badly misguided teacher.

A teacher who promotes an underweight BMI as healthy puts students mentally at risk of body perception, especially the many not as knowledgable as you.  There is a large range of BMIs for children that IS healthy and I suspect the majority of classmates fall into it.  Those above it should be included with everyone else in learning the basics of food and exercise and from someone not as ignorant as your teacher on the subject.

Youve approached her and your words have fallen on ignorant ears.  Hopefully you or your parents will speak with a counselor about how her and soon.  Her misinformation is contrary to education.  

You're learning an invaluable lesson: even teachers and other authorities can be wrong!

If you were my teen, I wouldn't write a pass to get out of the assignment. Instead, I'd encourage you to do the research and write a paper with cites from reputable sources showing how the teacher is wrong.

Unfortunately we here aren't really "reputable" for citing, but I'm sure the library has links you can follow. To get you started, here is some interesting research that just came out:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080107/hl_nm/act ivity_obesity_dc;_ylt=ApwUj9r5x73FaKu2V9.ALpm ISbYF

And also, do some googling, Havard Medical School has done studies showing that those who diet - particularly teens - end up gaining more weight than those who don't.

In addition to the other places already noted, some of my favorite sites include:

www.dietitian.com

and

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/p yramids.html

Frankly, if you want to know what I think? I think your PE teacher should talk less and get you all moving more!!!!

Here, from Prevention:

http://www.prevention.com/cda/article/constan t-dieting-may-increase-obesity/61ec8169c19031 10VgnVCM20000012281eac____/weight.loss/strate gies.for.success/weight.maintenance

Woah, Nellie !!

To record your diet to understand its merits and drawbacks is one thing, but you are totally spot on in your OP that teens need extra cal's to build bones and muscles, the last thing you need is more pressure to make you self-conscious.

You need to tell your principal and your parents about your PE teacher - sounds totally unethical to me. If this happened at my son's school there would be disciplinary action against that teacher.  

Plus, your teacher sounds right out to lunch with nutrition -- peanut butter is an excellent food choice, full of mono-unsaturated fat you need to grow.  '15' is not a healthy BMI.  This teacher is totally out of line, probably totally untrained in nutrition science, and possibly crackers.

If you're up to the challenge, I'd protest this little operation.  Get your parents on board, but you're old enough to take this on yourself, or with your friends, which can be a learning experience in itself.

Good luck! 

I just looked on the CDC website for BMI's for Age for girls.  A BMI of 15 is considered within the healthy range for girl children 12.5 and below.  It is considered underweight after that for all ages.  The OP has a BMI for Age of 17.2, which is considered healthy for her age and weight (OP, I used your bday to be January 1, 1994, and the measurement day being January 1, 2008.  Your BMI for Age will change month to month as you grow).

Please visit: CDC Child and Teen BMI for Age Calculator

There is an excellent explanation of teen BMI for Age on the site as well.

OP-- good for you for sticking to your guns but I wonder if maybe the gym teacher is just misinformed (i.e. ignorant) and TRYING to do a good thing but going about it in a very bad way.  For me personally, I think it would have been great if someone has shown me the good things to eat rather than just "you are fat, lose weight."  I think your teacher's methods are horrid or at least the way you present them.  But in general, tracking what one eats and then looking for a way to make one's diet more healthy is a good thing, no matter what your age is.  The emphasis on weight though, that is really the problem.  good luck to you!

can u please give me your schools address or phone number, i will seriously contact them and tell them how horrible that is

My old pe teacher was a bit like this - he told all of us girls we were fat and that he, and I quote "would never dream of dating anything over a size 6" and thats a UK size 6, so a US size 2.  Nice.

With one of the girls, who was the same height as me, 5'8, and a bit slimmer, about 130lbs,  he used to run up behind her and grab her sides, wiggling the tiny bit of fat on her hips and saying 'looks like someone needs to go on a diet'. She ended up with severe bulimia.  

Anyway, he left that school 6 weeks before I did. Turned out he was an illegal immigrant without a work permit, and he got deported back to new zealand.  Shows how much that school checked up on their staff - for all they knew, he could've been on a sex offenders list. I'm so glad I don't go there anymore.

Your teacher is promoting an unhealthy approach to food, by telling you that a BMI of 15 is what you should be aiming for.  Complain, because at the end of the day, while you know it's wrong to have a bmi of 15, there will be a helluva lot of girls in your class that aren't knowledgeable about weight, and will go out to actively seek that bmi.