My friend is obsessed with her weight. She's 17 years old and only 120 lbs and is 5'6 tall- which equates to a normal BMI. But it's still not enough for her. Here are all her "weight rituals":
1. Drinks 1-3 glasses of water before each meal and snack
2. Refuses portions larger than 1/3 of the plate
3. Checks her weight every morning and every night
4. Memorizes the calories of various foods
5. Only indulges in sweets on holidays
6. Does jumpingjacks, situps, and pushups before and after every meal
7. Often skips at least one meal
8. Always compares herself to my weight (I am a very small girl; my height and weight are drastically different from hers)
9. If she hears the word "fat" or any variation of it, she'll instantly think the conversation is about her

And to top it off, her mother encourages her to "lose weight" saying that if she doesn't start now she'll be fat later on.

Maybe I'm overreacting because I have never had to worry about my weight and don't understand what she's thinking, but she is too young to be worrying about her weight. I'm afraid that this will morph into an unshakable sickness.

What can I do to make her feel better about herself and to get her to eat more healthy?

Well, I am not really on this kind of research so far, but I guess there are some things you could do.
As I said, I am not really that deep on the psicological studies so there is a chance that what I am about to say is not true.
So, her mother says that she must lose weight, even though she is on the perfect weight.
What might be is that the mother, seeing that her kid is getting on the same path as she is, is trying to give to the girl exactly what she didnt had on her childhood, which probably was caring parents who cared about her weight. Maybe she was a overweight woman on her 20's and hated herself because of it.
and now, trying to avoid the same fate to her child she is making her pay way more attention than nescessary on it. Leading into the path that she is taking.
One solution you might take is to try to counter this effect by telling her and giving her examples of how perfect is her weight right now.
As I said, I do't really know much about this subject, but I hope that this little explanation helped.
Cheers!

1. Drinking water is good, but only 1 glass is okay. If she drinks anymore than that, the food in her body will not digest properly because it's so dilute in her stomach. Thus a lot of nutrient gets passed as waste.
2. It's good to eat 1/3 of your stomach, not 1/3 of your plate. Eat according to your own stomach, not a plate damnit.
3. You'll always be lighter in the morning, if you want to know why look at this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL2e0rWvjKI
4. Your using up spaces of your brain that has better uses than that.
5. Sweets are needed for brain development, even in teen years. There is a certain sugar energy found n these sweets that your brain needs. But no ones telling you to fucking dine on a whole nutella bottle.
6. Fine, do the exercises. But NEVER after your lunch. If you believe in body clocks (sleep for example), it also exists in eating. exercise after this is a horrible thing to do. drawing out all the energy into wasteful movement from your stomach that's trying to give you energy for a whole full 24 hours. Way to go girl...
7. Never deprive your body if it's asking for food (different from when it 'wants' food and snacks..), or be an idiot.
8. If everyone was the same as everyone, then why the fuck was a BMI scale invented, smart ass.
9. Get your ears checked.


And don't worry mother, she'll surely 'lose weight' with the regime you've given her, wait till she can't stop and then reaches old age...osteoporosis anyone? Then wait till there's that one point (hopefully not) in her life where she gets really sick and she'll have no fucking body mass or energy to support her recovery, great idea woman, great.