So, my younger sister is only 16 years old and about 5'3, but she's already 200 pounds. I was really surprised because the last time I checked she was 180. It was shocking, and I was wondering if making her do cardio, stretch, kenpo, and core in the mornings would help at all. These, of course, along with the diet included for p90x.

I have a couple of concerns though. Will the cardio, kenpo, core, etc be enough? Or will she need to do a little bit of resistance? I was thinking of making her follow the Lean program.

I'm also afraid she won't have enough energy to do the exercises if she goes on a normal diet, or she won't lose weight at all if she follows the p90x diet.

Any help would greatly be appreciated by my family and I.

there are a few things you must consider.
why is your 16 years old sister overweight, you must find the root cause which ineluctably involve a visit to her doctor. my sister gained a lot of weight due to some shot she got for her menstruation. then she went and hired a personal trainer and lost the weight.

is she willing to follow a rigorous program such as the P90x.

what kind of support will she have. are you in this with her or just buying the dvds and stand on the sideline

you guys need to discuss this thoroughly before enlisting her in the sparta army.

the point is this she has to be the one posting, asking questions, being concern for herself.

I understand your concern as I'm speaking as a big brother but certain things need someone to be sick and tired of being sick and tired, thus the fire will be lit and you can stand by with your can of gasoline for the constant fueling.
i must admit most of the time I just push $#&^ on my younger siblings because big brother knows best.

Now for your questions
the first requirement of P90x is that one must be in shape before starting the program. so you're right if she doesn't exercise regularly she won't have much for energy.


What I would do if I was you is to get on a plan to get her in shape with you playing coach. she needs to be on a simple but intense cardio regiment such as cycling, elliptical, stairs, I don't think she would like running plus I don't think that's good for her knees.
I don't know much about diet for a teenager, I personally don't advocate a rationalize diet for a teenager but that's why I'm not Dr Les. but she'll need to keep a journal of everything she eats, she could get on a point counting system.

she needs to eat well and do a lot of cardio in preparation for P90X.

Like Les said about the running not being a good idea for the knees, I've also done some reading and jogging doesn't seem to be as effective as one would think as it reduced muscle mass and along with the fat. With out muscle mass fat loss with come at a much slower rate, some thing to think about.

As far as getting her to loose weight? You can't. Only she can make that decision. Don't push something like this onto her as it will wear at her self esteem making it that much harder to find the drive, trust me I know from personal experience!!! Like Les said, let her start that fire and stand by read with the gasoline.

As far as the P90X program. I do not at all recommend it for her if she doesn't have prior experience with physical activity of the sort. Such an advanced program might leave her frustrated and keep her from making any progress. She is going to have to find something she enjoys doing and build off of that. My calling was martial arts and it blew up from there. Try taking up badmitten or some other low impact sport. I had a lady friend in high school that lost 30lbs because she played Dance dance revolution! Just explore the possibilities. But I don't recommend pushing these ideas on her with the efficience on weight loss. Might make it that less appealing.

The P90X diet would be an excellent idea even without the exercise. It takes a whole lot of calories to sustain that weight. Simply making better food choices will help her loose the first 20lbs like cake. At a teenager though, I know that can be hard. Until I started buying my own food with my own money and avoiding the kitchen when the family was having dinner it was impossible to eat right. You can't be the only one in the house hold on a diet when everyone is still eating candy, ice cream, bacon, cake, ect.

Please take it from me just coming out of my teens growing up as an overweight kid. The emotional side needs to be taken care of first before you can address the physical.

Don't mean to come so down so hard on this topic but its not easy being where you sister is at.

Take this from a guy who absolutely LOVES this program and what it is doing for me.

Your sister needs to want to make a change, if that is her challenge. Does she have a medical condition causing the weight gain (rare, but it does occur)? If not, she may have a food addiction. My mother had(s) one and it rubbed off on us kids. As a suggestion, there is actually a group called OA (Overeaters Anonymous) that she joined and had great success in overcoming and controlling her addiction that she had for many more than 16 years.

I would suggest she look into this sort of group. Get into some shape, then move on to something more. Beachbody has a ton of different programs as well that she can do at home that all seem pretty effective. P90X is not for the faint of heart. It is a way of life for 90 days (and longer for many of us). We live and breathe it and recruit our families to do the same or put up with us.

Good luck mate!! Let us know if we can assist more.

i did plyometrics today and i almost died i flipped off the tony a few times . i weigh 143 at 5 foot 3 so i dont really no how your sister can do it. If i weight 5 pounds more i would have died!

P90X is probably going to be too much for her. If you already have the DVD's, then I'd say have her do a cut down version of each exercise (basically if she can't do regular pushups, have her do pushups on her knees, or half pushups, or combination of the two) this will, in theory allow her to keep pace with the DVDs. If you don't have the DVDs yet, then I'd say get her on one of the other programs from beachbody. Like Power 90, Hip Hop Abs, etc, one that will suit her, and also one that she will like to do. Like the others have said, the only way she will lose weight, is if she wants to lose weight and has the motivation to go through with it.

I do already have the DVD's and am about to start tomorrow, but I've had a talk with her and she doesn't really seem like she wants to lose the weight. I doubt she likes it, she just seems like she's content with her lifestyle.

I'll see if I can help her find an activity she'd be interested in, like you guys said. Thank you so much for the advice.

be supportive
and she'll be fine