BY BRANDON STEWARD

What Is Childhood Obesity?

A condition in which a child is significantly overweight for his or her age and height.

Overweight is defined as having excess body weight for a particular height from fat, muscle, bone, water, or a combination of these factors. Obesity is defined as having excess body fat.

Kids who measure at the 85th to 94th percentiles are considered overweight, because of excess body fat or high lean body mass. A child whose BMI is between the 5th percentile to 85th percentile is in the healthy weight range. A child with a BMI below the 5th percentile is considered underweight.

Causes of childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.

Children become overweight and obese for a variety of reasons. The most common causes are genetic factors, lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns, or a combination of these factors. Only in rare cases is being overweight caused by a medical condition such as a hormonal problem.

Weight problems run in families, not all children with a family history of obesity will be overweight. Children whose parents or brothers or sisters are overweight may be at an increased risk of becoming overweight themselves, but this can be linked to shared family behaviors such as eating and activity habits.

Exercise Guidelines

Children and adolescents should get 1 hr or more of physical activity daily.

Physical activity should be increased by reducing sedentary time (e.g., watching television, playing computer video games or talking on the phone).

Physical activity should be fun for children and adolescents.

Parents should try to be role models for active lifestyles and provide children with opportunities for increased physical activity.

Physical activity helps with controlling weight reducing blood pressure

raising HDL ("good") cholesterol

reducing the risk of diabetes and some kinds of cancer

improved psychological well-being, including gaining more self-confidence and higher self-esteem 

FITT Component

Encourage healthy eating habits. Small changes can lead to a recipe for success! Provide plenty of vegetables, fruits and whole-grain products.

Help your kids understand the benefits of being physically active. Teach them that physical activity has great health benefits like:

Strengthening bone

Decreasing blood pressure

Reducing stress and anxiety

Increasing self-esteem

Helping with weight management

Help kids stay active.

Reduce sedentary time

Beneficial Exercises

Cardiovascular exercises will be really beneficial

Running, Jumping, Bicycle riding,basketball, anything physically active

Contradicted Exercises Every exercise for children can be good

The pain focus is keeping the children active