Honestly, I wouldn't put a 17-year-old on MRC or any other weight loss plan to lose 20 lbs. She could eat what you eat, but probably in slightly smaller portions for protein, with maybe an addition of a yogurt for breakfast (Dannon Light & Fit is good) and/or lunch and maybe some fruit for breakfast and bread for lunch so that's it's a little more balanced. The green menu is so low in calories - she'd lose easily but you really have to know what you're doing to maintain once you lose.
Looking back to my teen & college years, I wish I'd focused more on developing good exercise habits than on dieting when I didn't need to - I think I screwed up my metabolism with unnecessary dieting. Not to say that your daughter may or not want to lose a few lbs to get to a healthier weight, but I'd encourage her to get there through exercise & healthy moderate eating habits. Hope I'm making sense here??? My main thing is that it just isn't good to be doing a low calorie diet at 17...

Thanks for that update - so glad Gina's dad is back home recovering - it's amazing how quickly they get back home after bypass surgery!

Good to see you! Congrats on 30 lbs down!

Thanks, Meemo, for the advice. It's a hard thing to encourage your daughter to be healthier without making her feel like she's fat! She's been overweight for a while but I've never wanted to say anything. She brought it up to me today in the car. I told her all she needed to do was stop eating so much out to eat food and exercise 3xper week but she told me she needed a "plan" to stick to. I think I'll make up a "lower" calorie plan for her so she has something to follow but keep the calories up enough to where she doesn't slow down her metabolism. Thanks again for your advice!

WooooHoooo!!!!! 30lbs. is awesome! Hopefully I'll sign that board in a few more weeks too! Congrats!

WOW Katie congrats on making it 11 weeks without a cheat. Mine have always come in the way of extra bread etc.. at dinner. My big one was the dinner out with wine and chocolate cake. But 1 week back OP and I was able to resist chocolate chip cookies and all the halloween candy. I made my family hide it so it's not in the middle of the kitchen! Good luck and you can do it!

Keepinonandon-
I def. would not put your 17 year old on a diet but try to teach her healthy eating habits. Making sure she includes fruits and vegies at her meal. Look at the food pyramid with her. If you go to the mypyramid web site there are usually some helpful eating tips. Also there is a meal planner on there that might help. Help her to find some sort of exercise that she likes. Maybe there is something the two of you can do together. My 16 year old and I love to go lift together and then that gives us some one on one time together. Good luck!
Tina

Denise! You are my hero! The chile relleno casserole was soooo tasty! I didn't even know I was missing green chiles, but your casserole really channeled some of the basic flavors of my grandmother's cooking. Thank you for sharing! I can't wait to try the soft taco casserole!

This is wonderful news! Thank you so much for sharing this information. Gina and her family have certainly been on my mind the last few weeks.

2.5 lbs is what I was averaging when I was very disciplined with my MRC program. Honestly, I don't think I would have really wanted to lose much more than that because I'd be afraid it wouldn't be sustainable. My main concern was monitoring the lean muscle mass and making sure that was stable.

I'm with Meemo and lv2ski on this. I'm afraid that you'd be monkeying with your daughter's lean muscle mass and her metabolism by allowing her to do an MRC-styled program, especially without the HNS. That could set her up for some real weight problems down the road. I will tell you that between May 2007 and May 2008, I lost about 14 lbs on my own through a few simple lifestyle changes. In January, I bought a new (to me) car, and began parking it in the furthest parking spot and walking in. I gave up sodas for Lent. When I did have a post-Lent soda, I got Coke Zero. I decided that I would not order anymore combo meals--I allowed myself a Whataburger with cheese, but I did not allow them to give me fries and ordered an unsweetened iced tea a la carte. I also began walking twice a day and began trying to get more than 4 hours sleep a night.

Tara, thank you so much for this detailed plan! Since I'm a mail order MRC-er, I don't always get all the information I need. I'm thinking about trying this next week...not sure I can make it 7 days, but we'll see!

Congratulations! That's a milestone!

Welcome back. Oh, how we've missed you... and your creative recipes. Glad to see you've returned. I looked forward to your posts and hope to see more of them again.

I'm so glad you liked it! Let me know what you think of the taco casserole, it's my favorite!

Great job! I'm so happy for you!! 30lb's is amazing!:hug:

I'll join with you on that challenge!

I'll join you on Thanksgiving challenge. I'm going to try to lose 10 pounds.

I'm down 10lbs!! Got to sign the board today!

Congratulations!! Keep up the good work!

DOH! I can't believe I didn't think of this before - check out spark people dot com (all one word) - you can put in your daughter's weight & goal weight, they'll put together an eating plan for her or she can just input what she eats and track her calories. It will track calories, protein/fat/carbs, pretty much anything you want it to track. It will also track exercise - either putting together an exercise program or you can track whatever plan you put together yourself. All for free. GREAT site.