It is a sign of the modern times and society that we live in that we need to discuss kids and weight loss. In earlier times it was almost unheard of to find an overweight kid let alone a fat one. But the fact is childhood obesity is quickly becoming one, if it isn’t already, of our biggest health problems for today’s society.

When it comes to kids and weight problems, it needs to be dealt with straight away because the longer the problem persists, the greater the chance of the child being overweight or obese as an adult.

An important factor to remember is that kids are a genetic product of their parents. So if your family genes are towards a bigger body size, the children might also have a problem losing weight. If you’re worried about a potential genetic influence on your child’s ability to maintain a healthy weight try the Try the Lifestyle Medicine Genetic Involvement Test to assess your family tree for a predisposition to storing energy as fat. However remember the key word here is ‘problem’. A genetic factor doesn’t mean they have to store fat.

If today’s kids were born 50 years ago they probably wouldn’t have had a problem even if they did have the genetics for storing excess energy as body fat.

Kids today are faced with two major issues

1. They have access to all the tastiest but fattiest and energy dense foods of any generation throughout history.

2. Modern technology provides them with a huge range of passive entertainment (ie. it doesn’t need any physical input from them) such as TVs, computer games and videos.

One of the biggest challenges for parents is ensuring their child eats healthily, and like parenting itself, it is a thankless task. Parents can become fed up with trying to minimise the amount of fat and energy dense foods their kids eat with little reward (other than knowing your kid is eating right).

The kids keep nagging, and nagging, and nagging! Sooner or later it seems easier to cave in to the relentless requests for the latest fad food.

If this sounds like you some reverse psychology might be needed to help the kids achieve / maintain a healthy weight.

To turn healthy living into a positive for kids vs a negative experience, try the following

• Draw up a plan where kids are rewarded for healthy eating
• Link a portion of pocket money to the amount of fruit and veggies the kids eat each week
• Passive activities such as TV or computers can be used as rewards for activity or healthy eating
• Develop family competitions. Base the goals around your family targets and challenge the kids to beat mum and dad. Attach healthy rewards to these achievements.
• Ensure mum and dad tow the line. Kids won’t comply if mum and dad don’t lead the way
• Fill kids up with low energy dense foods. This means they will have less room for high energy dense foods.

For many kids with weight problems, eating healthy foods is not the only answer. Indeed, if a healthy diet is the main focus and physical activity is neglected, chances are the child will still have a weight problem.

An essential tool for helping kids lead a healthy life later on, is the notion of play. This is because it increases their levels of activity and therefore assists in the burning up of the energy coming in and that which is stored (body fat).

It’s also a good idea, especially as the kids move into high school, to consider some form of scheduled and planned exercise. Whether it is sport, gym, dance, or family exercise such as hiking or cycling, this scheduled activity can build the platform for healthy exercise habits later in life.

The other reason is that this is the time where activity drops off significantly, especially for girls. It is common for teenage girls and young women to try to ‘catch-up’ through restrictive eating and strict exercise routines but if kids are able to maintain regular, scheduled exercise throughout school they are more likely to maintain these levels as they move into adulthood.

Interestingly though, new research is starting to suggest that activity may be more beneficial in terms helping kids develop strategies that will assist them in maintaining activity levels as they mature than structured sport.

At the end of the day a combination of moderate and vigorous exercise, just the same as adults, seems to be the way to go.

Below are some additional Lifestyle Medicine resources that you might find helpful.

Body Fat Tools

Checking your body fat percentage is more important than measuring your weight on scales alone. To get a free risk factor profile of your current levels and help with setting some realistic goals, go to the Lifestyle Medicine Body Fat And Fat Loss tool.

What type of exercise?

Use the Lifestyle Medicine Exercelector to seek the most appropriate forms of exercise for you and the family.