I have 9 year old identical twin girls, and one is overweight and the other one isn't. The thing is that they eat about the same thing, except one doesn't like breakfast.
The one that is a little overweight has always been bigger. She started a 1/2 pound bigger. Her twin sister had feeding issues so when they were a year old, the bigger one was probably 2 pounds bigger.
Every year, the bigger one just keeps on getting just a little bit bigger.
They are both fairly active. After school, they play for about 30-45 minutes on the playground. During the summer, they both swim several hours every day.
My son is very inactive and watches lots of TV and plays lots of computer games, and he is skinny as a rail.
I'm starting to get really worried about my one daughter. I've finally really started making her watch what she eats. Eats really hard because her brother and sister eat whatever they want and stay skinny.
If we all ate the way type 1 diabetics are supposed to eat (i.e. like the zone diet), skinny or fat, we'd all be much healthier and leaner.
I hope you get your daughter's weight under control. If she's a tubby kid she'll likely remain tubby for life.
Very interesting. Has your overweight daughter had testing done to determine her serum levels of thyroid hormones, corticosteroids, and androgens?