“If you have a gut, you are probably overweight.”
– Luke Beno, M.D., Pediatrician
On the subject of obesity and young people, there is both good news and bad news. The bad: a third of our kids are overweight. The good: that number hasn't changed over the past five years. The Centers for Disease Control says kids aren't getting any slimmer, but they aren't getting heavier either.
But there are ways parents and teens can help turn the tide.
Sixteen-year-old Brian, for example, weighed 300 pounds. According to his doctor, he was about to get diabetes.
"He walked me through it and told me everything that would happen," says Brian. "They cut off your fingers your toes, your feet, and you go blind soon. So yeah, it kind of worried me after that."
His doctor suggested Brian go to a medical program for overweight kids.
In the past, kids like Brian would be told to diet on their own or be sent to a weight-loss camp.
Today, hospitals and insurance companies around the country are starting programs designed to help kids manage their weight.
"I think it makes sense to have clinicians who can sit down and say, are you ready to do this? And let's do this in a way that makes sense," says Dr. Luke Beno, a pediatrician who heads up 'Operation Zero' - a program for overweight kids, run by the healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente.
Every Saturday for eight weeks, Brian went to the class - where he learned to exercise and make smarter food choices.
"So the best programs really work on real world skills," says Dr. Beno. "How do I pick a healthy lunch when I am at school? How do I eat healthy when I am eating out with my friends? How do I find ways to be active that aren't exercise and things that I don't want to do?"
Doctors say it's easy to tell if your child needs a program to help manage their weight.
"If you have a gut, you are probably overweight," says Dr. Beno.
He says use a medical-based program only if the child is concerned about being overweight.
"If they are not, do not drag them kicking and screaming to some program," says Dr. Beno. "It will not work."
So far, Brian has lost more than 20 pounds. His parents are proud.
"He had gotten up to like 301[pounds]," says Brian's mom Pansy, "and now he's down to like 275, and Dr. Beno is real impressed with that."
Doctors say the advantage of going through a hospital-based program is that kids will be screened for health conditions related to obesity.
Exercise research has shown the following:
- Over 60 percent of American adults are not regularly active.
- Twenty-five percent of adults are not active at all.
- Only 19 percent of high school students are active for 20 minutes or more per day.
- Men are more active than women.
- Physical activity declines with age.
- Ethnic minorities are less active.
- Higher education and income are associated with more leisure-time activity.
- Obese people are usually less active than non-obese persons.
The Surgeon General's report on physical activity endorses a moderate amount of physical activity that can be obtained by doing any of the following:
- Thirty minutes of brisk walking
- Thirty minutes of lawn mowing
- Thirty minutes of leaf raking
- Fifteen minutes of running
- Forty-five minutes of volleyball
What We Need To Know
Not only does exercise keep bodies healthy and help to prevent diseases, it is also important because it can help keep minds sharp and healthy. Experts at KidsHealth have developed the following list of the benefits of exercising.
- Exercise Makes Your Heart Happy – Your heart is one hardworking part, pumping blood every day of your life. The heart is a muscle, and it's the strongest muscle in your body, but it's always looking to become even stronger! Since lifting weights won't help it get stronger, it relies on you to do aerobic exercise. It's a good idea for kids to do some kind of aerobic exercise two or three times a week, for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Some excellent aerobic activities are swimming, basketball, ice or roller hockey, jogging (or walking quickly), rollerblading, soccer, cross-country skiing, biking and rowing. Even dancing, skipping, jumping rope and playing hopscotch are aerobic activities!
- Exercise Makes Muscles – All the muscles in your body do a fine job when you use them for easy stuff, like picking up a book or walking down the stairs. But what about using them for harder stuff, like taking long bike rides or climbing a tree? That's where exercise comes in. It makes your muscles stronger and sometimes larger. As your muscles get stronger, you can do more active things for longer periods of time. And strong muscles also help protect you from injuries when you exercise, because they give better support to your joints. Building up all different types of muscles is easy to do. For arm strength, try push-ups, pull-ups, tug-of-war or twirling a baton. Rowing in a rowboat or canoeing is great for building strong arm muscles as well. For strong leg muscles, try running, blading, skating and bike riding. And for strong stomach muscles, try sit-ups, bike riding, or even twirling a hula hoop around your waist.
- Exercise Makes You Flexible – Can you touch your toes easily? Most kids are pretty flexible, which means that they can bend and stretch their bodies without too much trouble. But as people get older they tend to get less flexible, so that's why it's important to exercise when you're a kid – so you can stay flexible. Plus, when you're flexible, you can be more active without having to worry about getting sprains and strained muscles. It's easy to find things to do for good flexibility. Tumbling and gymnastics are great ways to become more flexible. Yoga and dancing, especially ballet, also increase flexibility. Karate, tae kwon do and other martial arts are great for flexibility, too.
- Exercise Keeps You at a Healthy Weight – Every time you eat food, your body does the same thing: it uses some of the nutrients in the food as fuel. It burns these nutrients to give us energy or calories. You need calories for all of your body's functions, whether it's things you think about doing, like brushing your teeth, or things you never think about doing, like breathing. So it's important for kids to get all the calories they need from the foods they eat.But if the body isn't able to use all the calories that are coming from food, it stores them away as fat. And that's why exercise helps keep a child at a weight that's right for his/her height, by burning up extra calories. When you exercise, your body uses that extra fuel to keep you going strong.
- Exercise Makes You Feel Good – Exercising is a most excellent way to feel happy, whether you're exercising on your own or with a group. If you've had a tough day at school, a fight with your friend or just feel kind of blue, exercising can help you feel better. That's because when you exercise, your body can release endorphins, which are chemicals that create a happy feeling in your brain. Plus, when you're breathing deeply during exercise and bringing more air into your lungs, your brain appreciates the extra oxygen. And when you're active and running around, sometimes it's hard to think about just what was bothering you. Exercise can make you feel better about yourself, too. When you are stronger and more capable of doing things, you can feel pretty proud – whether you scored the winning goal or hula-hooped for an hour straight!
Resources
- American Heart Association
- Centers For Disease Control and Prevention
- Kaiser Permanente
- KidsHealth
- National Association for Sport and Physical Education
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- U.S Department of Agriculture