Physical Activity Useless in Obese Children

Apparently, the obesity epidemic among children has little if nothing to do with inactivity. A report from the EarlyBird Diabetes Study, based at the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, UK, has been studying in detail a group of children for the past 11 years.

According to a review published in 2009, all trials to reduce obesity weight turned out to be pointless, with results of only 90g in three years. It is universally accepted that less active children are fatter but, contrary to what is generally believed, it does not mean that inactivity leads to fatness. The theory advanced by EarlyBird suggests that sometimes it might just be the other way around.

Thanks to data collected annually from a large group of children, researchers analyzed whether low activity triggers fatness over time, or does fatness determine less physical activity. The answer, published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, was surprising: physical activity has no impact on weight change, but weight leads to less activity.

These findings call for a revision of the public health policy. Physical activity is recommended especially for children, as it is essential to their fitness and well-being, but it might one day be obsolete if childhood obesity is not controlled. As it has been proved that exercise cannot do that, the focus has to be on what and how much do children eat.

EarlyBird has established that obesity can appear very early in life, even before children go to school, and it is very often associated with obesity in the same-sex parent. With calories and sugars present in every day's food, a balanced diet is crucial.

An obese person has too much body fat. This is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. This extra weight may come from muscle, bone, fat and/or body water. Both terms mean that a person weight too much compared to the normal weight for his or her height. Whenever you eat more calories than you use, obesity might come up. Being obese increases risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis and some cancers.