I have an eighteen year old son, who has been a chubby kid most of his life. Yes, my fault. He is 6'3" tall, and was at 308 pounds when he went to the Doctor back in October. I had surgery to lose weight, but he has been following an appropriate high protein, low carb diet, and he has lost 51 pounds! I am so proud of him! He does protein drinks, keeps carbs limited to 30% of his total calories, drinks water, works out, and keeps his calories at an appropriate level (I want to say 1800-2000, but I'm not 100% sure). He tracks everything with myfitnesspal. When I started this process, I didn't expect my son to become healthy too, but I think it is the BEST side effect I could possibly have! We work hard and keep each other accountable together. I could not be more proud!

That is fantastic!!! I love hearing stories like this. This is something  I am a firm believer in, we have to teach our young kids now about healthy eating and living so that they don't have our problems as adults. It is wonderful to hear that your son is taking control of his life and getting his body in a healthier life style now while he is young!! Good job to both of you!!

First I am glad for you and your son's success.

What concerns me is that you claim it is your fault your son was chubby.  Did you force feed him (probably not). I have a feeling you fed him the best you could with the money and knowledge you had at the time. It may not have been in-line with today's understanding of nutrition, but you did the best you could with the resources and info you had.

Case in point-my own family (scandanvian and german). The german grandparents think meat and potatoes is a good meal. Liek potato IS the vegetable. Pasta is some sort of wonder food.  Then I look at my mom's cookbooks from the 60s-70s. There are some green salads but a lot of fried foods (this is betty crocker and betteer homes and gardens). Foods fried in butter and saturated fats.

Now-look at my cookbooks from the 80s-90s in the lowfat craze. Lots FF cheeses (brands that dont exist anymore). Lots of refined carbs there to make stuff taste better. 

We now know that Low fat-high refined carb diets arent necessarily good for us either.

Now look at my paleo cookbooks form the 2010s..lots of perimeter foods (i.e. foods from the perimeter) no flours, potatoes (me) and lost of caulflower crusts and spiralized noodles.

What I am saying is: things change, knowledge grows, don't blame/beat yourself up over this sort of stuff.  

That is awesome!! Good for him! You have made a positive influence on him! It is VERY common for parents to blame themselves for their kids' issues. But on the flip side, you can take credit for the good things, right?  :)

This is awesome.  Helps you stay on track too when the others on the family are in on the healthy living change. 

I was lucky my daughter looked at my example and ate right and exercised from the very beginning.  She tried to get me to join her but I had no motivation.  But now I do and we eat together and do things together that we never did before.  Like I said it's so awesome when family is also healthy with you.  It helps with long term achievement!!!

That is the best NSV ever!  And at 18 years old he's developing really good habits that will probably stick with him for life.  Sure, he may backslide now and then, but he has a good handle on what works and the tools to get the job done.  

Good job, Mom!