Show me a young woman who isn't dialed into their body image and I'll show you an isolated incident. I'd be very careful with how to be helpful and not trigger a rebellion that could really cause some eating behavior, not particularly good ones at that. The tweens to teens for my two nieces and my great niece were concerning times. The pressure on them for body image was incredible based on their behavior. In addition to an unhealthy relationship with food and eating, one became a "cutter", not to be out done by another who cut her wrists over the natural development of her body. The only weight problems were unrealistic pressures of their peers.
In my opinion, based on just a few experiences and a fair amount of studying research on the topic, she can be educated and hopefully realize how she must manage her weight. I do believe a good BMI or Body Mass Index is essential. When looking at BMI, once you have received a measurement, if that value isn't underweight, the optimum body weight is just an optional goal.
Like many CFers I am thin (5' 10" 145# ideally). I'm going through an intense and painful pancreatic flare and in the last month alone dropped twenty pounds. This is why CFers need a healthy weight. A decline or exacerbation can strip one of 1/3 of the individual's body weight in no time. If that's 145 pounds to 90 pounds, a sudden pneumonia could be fatal.
I'd like to suggest an almost guaranteed way to reduce or eliminate bloating. This assumes that her enzymes are properly titrated evidenced by soft pliant, formed stools. Follow a low FODMAP diet. Fermentable Oligo-Di Monosacarrides and Polyols are responsible for most bloating. FODMAP foods will have a familiar ring. Foods high in fructose, gluten and lactase are major culprits but at least my FODMAP do's and do not's aren't absolutes. My belly has been like a canker on a walnut tree, resembling an army helmet hidden under my T shirt for 30 years until I got my gut healthy and took up a low FODMAP diet.
It makes sense. All high FODMAP foods are either difficult or impossible to digest. They pass into the intestines, both small and large, only to find microbes happy to ferment and irritate the tender gut. These aren't healthy fiber or foods that contain needed special nutrients, they are food for microbial interlopers and toxins like wheat and pit fruits make to avoid being eaten by insects and animals. Seeds are the only future children of plants. Many plants utilize the gut of animals to spread seeds afield, but cannot afford to lose them to digestion. Humans making flour from grains must remove toxins from some grain types. They should be removed from several others but the toxins aren't recognized.
It only took about a month and years of serious bloating were a memory. If fat is encouraged and "fat" is the wrong association, consider MCT's or Medium Chain Triglycerides. Fats are very long, long and medium chain triglycerides. The longer the chain of a lipid, the more bile acids are required to break the fat down to long and medium chain triglycerides. If her gallbladder is not up to par or missing, putrid gas will replace any fears of looking fat. Another reason to consider MCT's as fat. It will put good weight on anybody who has enough. Some MCT's are tasty, coconut, flax, hemp and many other oils go into food easily. They have a feel good quality to most tummies.
Fats are calorie concentrates and to a point calories over budget will add weight. Sugar alone can cause morbid obesity. Healthy weight requires the complete modern food pyramid, fats down through MCTs, short chains or proteins, complex and simple carbohydrates and sugars.
Let her avoid heavy fats, it's not fat, rather the word "fat". Who's counting MCTs?
Good luck,
LL
