What Might Surprise You About Childhood Obesity

The formula is pretty straightforward: energy in/energy out. This is the term nutritionists use to describe the intended balance between calories consumed and calories burned. If the level of physical activity is not great enough to burn the amount of calories taken in, weight increases. If this imbalance continues, overweight and possibly obesity result.
Given our fondness for fast food (an ever-growing fondness, due to ever-busier lives) and our tendency to “supersize,” it’s easy to imagine that caloric intake is the crux of the obesity problem. And certainly it is part of the problem, especially considering the quality of the calories consumed. (Recent evidence indicates that children get a full quarter of their vegetable servings in the form of potato chips and French fries!) But the greater problem lies with the second half of the equation: energy out.
Studies both here and abroad have indicated this is true. The Framingham Children’s Study, for example, found that preschool children with low levels of physical activity gained significantly more subcutaneous (beneath the skin) fat than did more active children. In another study it was determined that inactive preschoolers were 3.8 times more likely than active preschoolers to have increased triceps skinfold thickness (the best measure of obesity in children) in follow-up assessments. It’s also been found that children who watch more than five hours of television a day are almost five times more likely to be overweight than children who watch two hours or less – with excessive TV viewing considered to contribute to 60 percent of the risk of obesity in children.