Convince my younger brother to exercise?
 

Basically, my younger brother is 15 now, well into puberty, and i want him to start exercising more frequently.

He's been pretty over-weight for a few years now and i'm afraid this lifestyle wont pass... When he was younger he played basketball regularly on a team and we'd always find time for physical activities on the weekends. But around the time he entered highschool he stopped playing, I got busier/older, and he started gaining weight. He eats way too much food and doesnt think at all about his health (he gets it from my dad who is a horrible role model).

Now, I think he's old enough to start going to the gym with me and stuff like that.. But he's so reluctant to even consider it. We play ball once in a while but it absolutely is not enough... I think he's lost a lot of self confidence or something with this weight gain.. Whenever I tell him he should work out with me he just says "no, i dont want to" or something like that and its really frustrating when I'm just trying to help him get back on track.

Same age as your bro, sounds like he games a lot too. Get him to quit games so he has more time to do other things. Trust me games is probably the number 1 reason he always says "no, i don't want to". If he doesn't play games then maybe convice couple of his friends to go and it'll make im want to go.

^ you're 15??? :heckno:

Dude, the kids fifteen and well into puberty, you need to explain it to him in a way he'll understand.

Try this..

"bro, if your in good shape, you'll get this"
http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/a...ts-butt-13.jpg

"but, if you're not, this is all you'll get"
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/b...t-chick_12.jpg

^ :alone:

I made fun of my brother, calling him pinner and such. Now he goes to the gym with me... however he doesn't listen to me or do what I do and freestyle it...

But try making fun of him, and then mention how you can help him solve that problem by going to the gym and such :D

after he like that special chick in school and she reject him he will go to the gym, for sure.

if you don't get him off the games by oct 25th... game over

http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/blog/515000/517940_4_org.png
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...ye-d3bufq6.png
http://admintell.napco.com/ee/images...psn_avatar.jpg

Have you tried sitting down with him and having a "brother to brother" conversation?

Maybe he is insecure about going to the gym because he isn't comfortable not knowing what to do? Reassure him that you'll be there to teach him, bring him at a time when it is not too busy and not full of people, tell him the benefits of short term (reassure him how much better he will feel, and how much energy he will have) and long term health benefits.

Sometimes people need a reality check, their perception and desire to be/maintain a healthy lifestyle is often clouded with their insecurities.

Expose the poor lifestyle your father lives and the consequences from it.

Look for support in other family members?

Be straight with him but be encouraging. You are his brother so you are looking out for him. Make sure he knows that.

If you've been telling him to go the gym with you, I can see why he's a little reluctant. I use to workout in my garage because my dad has a gym set out there, but after a while the weights started getting too light, but I was too scared of signing up at the gym because of above comments: I didnt want to look like an idiot.

I think the problem with your bro is he's entering that age where he wants to do what HE wants, not what anyone else wants him to do. Teens are always naive and never think about the consequences of the choices they make.

You can't make him do something he doesnt want to do, my parents tried for years with my brother and they never got through to him. He's better now but he lacks motivation in alot of areas.

However I've got a buddy that WAS overweight, then one day something just clicked and he started going nuts: Eating right, hitting the gym hard. He ended up losing 100 lbs and is in awesome shape now.

Bottom line is I dont think you'll be able to make him go. He's gotta want to do it himself.

Exactly. If he doesn't want to go, he doesn't want to go. Leave him alone and enjoy your own life

I think he needs to be educated on why he should be exercising because if people are just gonna say "you should go because you're fat" or something..it's not gonna work. I wouldn't use the forceful approach because like some people said..he probably already knows he's overweight and is lacking the confidence to do something about it.

Educate him with videos (Supersize Me of the likes) and provide him the sources to hit the gym/work out when he DOES come around. I'm glad he has support like you because if he didnt it'd be a lot harder to do.

Getting in shape should be the priority and he shouldn't be working out just because he's fat. It's his life, really. If you're concerned about his health, just throw away all the junk food at home; he'll probably be pissed but who cares. At least it's a start right? At that age, he probably doesn't realize that his family members care for him.

He'll realize sooner or later that he may want to start working out, not just for girls etc, but for himself, which is good.

Sometimes, it just takes something tragic to happen for someone to just have that motivation. For example, my father is trying to slim down now that he's 50 because his blood pressure is going up. Everybody called him fat but he was like :fuckthatshit:.

Ain't gonna happen. I tried forcing my brother in law, signed him up, etc, and nothing came of it. So I stopped bothering him. He's gained alot of weight himself now, and once in a while he makes a comment saying he wants to workout, and I just nod and say "cool" - but nothing comes of it.

Also, doesn't matter of age. The desire to workout comes from within. Hopefully as he gets older, he will realize the benefit of living healthy and will set his mind to workout.
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Let him be and you'll be surprised. He has got to be intrinsically motivated to do such a thing. Without that, he will probably do what you say and end up where he started; fat.

Once he becomes a late teen or adult, then maybe his attitude will change. But right now let him be and ask if he wants to work out but don't force.

It's okay, same boat as you are in, working out too :D



To the OP, you can't do much but tell him workout, why its good to workout, whatll happen if he does or dont, etc. If he doesn't want to, then so be it.

He just needs to find some motivation.. like some above posts. Make fun of him, tell him hes getting fat, and that some of his friends think so too. Bet thatll make him think twice before sitting down with chips in his hand to play COD.
Worked for me at least.

at his age, his peers are his biggest influence, so i'm guessing he hangs out with a bunch of lazy kids..

i agree with Alar, you should sit down with him and tell him the consequences of being unhealthy.. i don't even know how you can live without being healthy :heckno:, see what he says and tell us :D

^straight. With these little kids rolling into high-school, they are all shorter, fatter, and seem dumber than the last grade.
Don't want to make assumptions, but seems like its getting worse every year. So many factors play into that, games are just one. So is eating all the junk food, as its cheap.

Then again, hes 15, he should know well enough already, if he doesn't then i dont know what kind of exposure hes had.

OP here, Thanks everyone for the advice.

LoL we took away the games when his grades went down, and it worked he's doing better in school.

I'm gonna see how things go in the next few months. I dont want to attack him for being fat I think he gets enough of that already from others. For now I will continue to ask him to join me and if he ever says yes i'll be sure to make it an enjoyable and enlightening experience for him. I guess the most i can do for now is try to feed him good stuff and keep the tv off.

I've talked to him about consequences and he doesnt respond to it, I think he gets the idea but I just dont know how to motivate him.

Noticed that too!! lol

leave a motivational video on his computer on front of the screen when he goes for a bathroom break or something :)
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I don't want to fail you, but SuperSize Me should never be shown to anyone, except as preparation to watching FatHead, so you know how wrong the first movie was.

Working out isn't gonna help him lose weight. He needs cardio.

Also, tell him girls don't like fat fucks.

Also don't stress out too much. He's only 15. Old enuff to know what's right and wrong, but he doesn't have the life experience yet to forecast what changes he needs to do. I'm sure when he's a bit older, 17 or 18, and his friends are working out, that will give him a change of mind.

And yea, don't call him fat. That will just make him go for comfort food lol (speaking from experience).
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I don't think making fun of him is the greatest idea. Sure maybe your brother took it and decided to change his lifestyle, but not everyone's going to react the same.
What if his brother takes it poorly and does the opposite? Like the OP said, he probably gets it enough from other people, doesn't need to hear that shit from his own brother.