The Hartford Courant

Often, though, it is the health scare that gets parents' attention. For René, a mother of four in Farmington who asked that their last names not be used, says she worries because she watched her overweight mother struggle with heart problems. Two of her sons, Chris, 16, and Pat, 14, use their weight to some advantage on a football field, but both felt they weighed too much. They tried Weight Watchers but didn't like the weekly weigh-ins and complained that they were always hungry. Then they contacted Pam Oliver, owner of Body Transformers in Rocky Hill. On a recent Sunday, the boys sit with Oliver in their living room.

"I've given you a lot of cereal, and it's quick and easy, but this week what I'd like to do is to put in more protein," Oliver tells the boys. Oliver has designed individual meal plans for Chris, Pat and René, who also wished to lose weight - with dinners that are the same but allow for individual preferences.

Experts say that for children to lose weight, it has to be a family endeavor.

With their busy schedules, Rene says that too often the family relied on quick, but calorie-heavy meals like pasta or chicken nuggets and fries for dinner. Now they have more healthful meals, including low-fat quesadillas, turkey burgers and chicken strips with Shake 'n Bake.

"Do you like banana and [low-fat] pudding?" asks Oliver."Yeah," answers Pat, "but I also like yogurt."

"Perfect," says Oliver.

"If you say you can't have it, they will crave it more," says Oliver, so she finds ways to include favorites while balancing the rest of the diet.

Oliver encourages them not to look at the scale but to develop healthful habits and the trimmer body will follow. Since the program began in November, the boys say they've each lost about 10 pounds while René has lost 20.