REFERENCES: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4970

TYPE 2 DIABETES IS BECOMING COMMON AMONG CHILDREN WHICH IS UNUSUAL BECAUSE IT IS FOUND MOSTLY IN ADULTS.

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE IS ALSO A RISK FACTOR WITH OBESITY. HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MAKES THE HEART PUMP HARDER AND WORK HARDER TO PUMP BLOOD TO ALL THE BODY’S ORGANS. THIS IS PUTTING MORE STRAIN ON THE HEARTS BLOOD VESSELS WHICH CAN CAUSE A HEART ATTACK OR STROKE.

HYPERTENSION IS ALSO A RISK FACTOR.

DEPRESSION AND PHYSCIOLOGICAL ISSUES ARE ALSO RISK FACTORS. DEPRESSION MAKES IT DIFFICULT FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TO ACCOMPLISH ANY GOALS, INCLUDING WEIGHT LOSS.

Section 1: Defining Obesity

Section 2: Risks

Section 3: Causes

Section 4: Parents, Schools and Communities

Section 5: New Technology

Section 6: Improvments

Sections 7: Dangers of Obesity

Section 8: Emotional Risk

Section 9: Ways to fight agianst Obesity

How do you help your children lose weight?

It can help to stick to the basics. Don’t worry about counting calories and carbohydrates and fat grams. Instead, provide healthy meals and snacks and encourage regular physical activity.

Being a good role model is also important, starting when your kids are young. This can help the whole family to be healthy.

If your child is already overweight, you will likely have to make some changes to his diet. But this isn’t as hard as you think. It doesn’t have to involve counting every calorie that he eats and drinks, which can be especially hard when your kids are eating at school.

Instead, keep in mind that a pound is equal to about 3500 calories. So if your child is gaining an extra pound a week, he needs to cut his diet back by 3500 calories a week or 500 calories a day so that he doesn’t gain any more weight.

Fortunately, most kids don’t need to make such drastic changes to their diet. Your overweight teen is likely just gaining an extra 10-15 pounds a year, which would be equal to just 100 to 150 calories a day, about equal to a can of non-diet soda.

Again, not gaining any more extra weight is an important first goal, but many overweight kids also need to lose some weight.

You can use the same calculations to figure out how much more to cut your child’s daily calories by to lose weight. So, once your child is at a stable weight and not gaining, if you want to help your child lose 5 pounds a year, cut his diet back by 50 calories a day. To lose 10 pounds, eliminate 100 calories a day, and so on.

If your child is still gaining weight, then you will have to cut more calories out of his diet. For example, if he has been gaining an extra 5 pounds a year and he needs to lose 10 pounds, then that is a total of 15 pounds that you need to compensate for. So he will need to cut back his diet by 150 calories a day.

How can children burn 50 calories a day exercising?

Your children should be able to burn 50-100 calories a day in 30-60 minutes of regular activities that children enjoy, such as walking, roller blading, bicyling, or playing baseball, basketball or soccer.

REFERENCE. http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/weight_loss_for_kids.html

Health care providers generally agree that people who have a BMI of 30 or more can improve their health through weight loss. This is especially true for people who are severely obese.

Preventing additional weight gain is recommended if you have a BMI between 25 and 29.9, unless you have other risk factors. Obesity experts recommend you try to lose weight if you have two or more of the following:

• Family history of certain chronic diseases. If you have close relatives who have had heart disease or diabetes, you are more likely to develop these problems if you are obese.
• Pre-existing medical conditions. High blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, or high blood sugar levels are all warning signs of some obesity-associated diseases.
• “Apple” shape. If your weight is concentrated around your waist, you may have a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, or cancer than people of the same weight who have a “pear” shape.

Fortunately, a weight loss of 5 to 10 percent can do much to improve health by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels. In addition, recent research has shown that a 5- to 7-percent weight loss can prevent type 2 diabetes in people at high risk for the disease. REFERENCE:http://www.athealth.com/consumer/disorders/understandingobesity.html

Obesity is in children is a epidimic. Obesity” specifically refers to an excessive amount of body fat. “Overweight” refers to an excessive amount of body weight that includes muscle, bone, fat, and water. As a rule, women have more body fat than men. Most health care professionals agree that men with more than 25 percent body fat and women with more than 30 percent body fat are obese. These numbers should not be confused with the body mass index (BMI), however, which is more commonly used by health care professionals to determine the effect of body weight on the risk for some diseases that is increasing around the nation.

Although there are some genetic and hormonal causes of childhood obesity, most excess weight is caused by kids eating too much and exercising too little. Children, unlike adults, need extra nutrients and calories to fuel their growth and development. So if they consume the calories needed for daily activities, growth and metabolism, they add pounds in proportion to their growth. But children who eat more calories than needed gain weight beyond what’s required to support their growing bodies.

Far less common than lifestyle issues are genetic diseases and hormonal disorders that can predispose a child to obesity. These diseases, such as Prader-Willi syndrome and Cushing’s syndrome, affect a very small proportion of children. In the general population, eating and exercise habits play a much larger role.