My daughter has lost a lot of weight since she gave up eating cheese. I need to lose some weight too. Should I give up cheese?

There is nothing wrong with cheese. Cheese is a great source of healthy fat and an excellent source of protein as well, not to mention calcium. Your daughter has lost weight because she gave up calories. She took a regular source of calories in her diet and removed it. Fewer calories means weight loss! It doesn’t really matter what food is given up if you want to lose weight. What matters is not replacing the calories you took out with calories from another source.

What your daughter is doing is concentrating on what she is eating, how much she is eating, when she is eating and why. She is focused. She has chosen to give up a steady source of calories (cheese) and so far it’s working. If she is happy with her weight loss and wants to resume eating cheese, she may have to reassess her diet and may have to cut calories somewhere else. Alternatively she could cut the portion sizes of the foods she eats.

The key to keeping a stable weight is to always be aware of the calories going in to your  body, your activity level and how many calories are going out due to that activity.