Childhood Obesity - Do you have an overweight child? We offer tips to help your child lose weight and get fit!

If you want to lose weight, or are trying to help your overweight child achieve a healthier weight, keep the diet plan simple. This advice is consistent with the conclusions reached by researchers with Indiana University and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.

• Researchers assigned 390 overweight women to the Brigitte or the Weight Watchers diet plans.
  
• Brigitte is a simple diet in which participants get a shopping list and then follow a simple meal plan.
  
• Weight Watchers is more complicated and requires dieters to weigh and measure foods, assign points to each food, and keep under a certain number of points every day.
  
• The women on the more complicated plan tended to get discouraged and give up.

The researchers noted that there are both physical diet environments and mental ones. The optimal physical environment involves keeping sugary, high fat foods unavailable, installing exercise equipment, etc. An optimal "cognitive environment" should be simple.

"For people on a more complex diet that involves keeping track of quantities and items eaten, their subjective impression of the difficulty of the diet can lead them to give up on it," said Peter Todd, a professor in Indiana University's department of psychology and brain sciences.

Labels: weight loss

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Some people may have a genetic predisposition that makes it hard for them to both lose weight and keep it off once they do, according to new research from Spain's University of Navarra:

• Dr. Estibaliz Soto and his colleagues studied 180 people on a low calorie diet for eight weeks.
• The researchers evaluated the participants at six months and 12 months intervals.
  
• Those with certain mutated or altered genes were not only less likely to lose any weight, they were more likely to gain it back if they did manage to lose some pounds.

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Obese children who participated in a family weight management program were unable to sustain their weight loss after one year.

• Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh studied 192 children ages eight to 12 years old, who were heavier than 99 percent of other children their age and sex.
  
• After six months, children enrolled in the weight-loss program lost 8 percent of their excess weight.
  
• However, within a year, the children were at the same weight as obese children not in such programs, and within 18 months, their gains in health markers had disappeared.
  
• The children who lost weight had previously shown gains such as reduced waist size, lowered blood pressure, and so forth.

Interventions for obese children have health benefits, but it has to be sustained over time. The treatment needs to somehow be continued, said Dr. Marsha Marcus, author of the study.

This study appeared in the journal Pediatrics.

Labels: weight loss, weight management

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Health-care experts continually try to devise plans that will help overweight and obese children lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The latest plan has seven steps that progressively increase in intensity and level of commitment.

For behavioral therapy, the plan suggests starting with groups such as Weight Watchers or Take Off Pounds Sensibly that offer support, education and accountability and allow parents and children to work together. (Source: The Los Angeles Times)

The program referred to the in LA Times article includes the following seven stages:

1. Medical Management
2. Education
3. Environmental changes
4. Support groups
5 & 6. Two forms of cognitive behavior therapy
7. Bariatric surgery (only as a last result)

These steps are meant to be shared among parent, child, and physician so they can all work together to design and a comprehensive plan of action. Failing to address weight issues in childhood can lead to one of the many health issues facing overweight teens.

Labels: childhood_obesity, weight loss, overweight children

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The vast majority of American children (90 percent) drink sugar-sweetened drinks every day. Now a new study finds that replacing those drinks with water could help them reduce calorie intake and experience fewer dental problems.

Dr. Y. Claire Wang and her associates at Columbia University analyzed reports of diets from the 2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of children ages two to 19. They found that the empty calories in sugary drinks accounted for more than 10 percent of the children's daily calories. Other studies have found that children and teens consume 70 percent of their soft drinks at home, and only 15 percent at school.

"The evidence is clear that replacing these 'liquid calories' with calorie-free beverage alternatives both at home and school represents a key strategy to eliminate excess calories and prevent childhood obesity," Dr. Wang said.

This study appeared in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Labels: weight loss, overweight children, soft_drinks, studies

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Young women with normal levels of Vitamin D are taller and slimmer than those who are deficient in the vitamin, according to a new study from McGill University Health Center.

Vitamin D is easily obtained from sunlight and certain foods.

The McGill team used blood tests and body fat assessments on girls ages 16 to 22.

This study appeared in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Labels: weight loss, vitamins

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Liposuction and tummy tucks are inappropriate procedures for weight loss for people of any age. With the recent coverage in the media of a growing number of teenagers going under the knife to loose weight, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons is getting the word out about the lack of scientific data supporting the use of body contouring procedures to fight childhood obesity.

"'The teenage years can be extremely tough for kids who are teased about their weight; however, liposuction and tummy tucks are not the answer,' said ASPS President Roxanne Guy, MD. 'My message to young kids - proper diet and exercise are still the best ways to slim down.'"

While there may be some physical and psychological benefits from having the surgery, there is no data to support it's benefit to childhood obesity. Read more online.

Labels: weight loss, obesity surgery, liposuction

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Pediatricians are reports more foot and ankle pain from their overweight and obese patients.

"Overweight children can have arch problems, fractures and inflammation, as well as bunions, flat feet and problems with the bones in the feet connecting properly. And having foot problems makes it even harder for kids to lose weight because it's more difficult to be active."

Learn more online.

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, obese teens, weight loss, foot pain

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An Aug. 17 editorial on the website of Springfield, Illinois, newspaper The State Journal-Register praised overweight teenager Scott Basso for his participation in the Wellspring Academies weight loss program and the Style Network show Too Fat for 15: Fighting Back:

A report last year by Trust for America’s Health ranked Illinois 10th in the nation in childhood obesity, with 34.9 percent of children here classified as obese.

Those statistics may frame the problem, but they only tell the numerical side of the story. The real story of the problems obesity can cause can come only from going through the struggle yourself or watching someone close to you fight that battle.

That’s why we give a lot of credit to 14-year-old Scott Basso. The Athens High School freshman-to-be has struggled mightily with his weight for much of his life.  ...

It takes courage to share a struggle as personal and emotional as this even with close relatives and friends. For a teenager to share it with a television audience is especially courageous.

Labels: weight loss, teenagers, wellspring

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With almost one-third of all American children overweight or obese, experts are debating the best ways to help these children and to prevent others from becoming overweight too. A recent edition of the Journal of Sports Psychology in Action looked at one such effort.

A four step approach was developed in 2005 by a committee of representatives from 15 healthcare organizations. This committee reported to the American Medical Association, the United States Health Resources and Service Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control.

• In Stage One, parents of overweight children would undergo three to six months of educational sessions, setting four goals, including eating more fruit and vegetables, minimizing sugar drinks, limiting screen time to two hours a day, and getting one or more hours of physical activity.
• If this does not cause weight loss, then they move into Stage Two, which requires healthcare professionals to monitor the children more closely for six months.
• Stage Three would increase the intensity of the monitoring.
• If necessary, the children would move into Stage Four, which involves restrictive diets, structured activities, medication, therapeutic camps or boarding schools, and/or bariatric surgery.

 

Labels: weight loss

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A recent article in the Journal of Sports Psychology in Action recently outlined two efforts to develop regimens to help overweight youth achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

In 2009, a team of five doctors and three psychologists, all specialists in weight management, developed a seven-step model. They concluded that the four-stage model wasted too much time (three to six months) in educating and assessing the problem, instead of getting down to the job of actively helping children manage their weights.

The seven steps are: (1) medical evaluation; (2) education of parents; (3) environmental changes, such as removing TVs and computers out of a child's bedroom; (4) support groups, such as  Weight Watchers, (5) cognitive behavioral therapy; (6) immersion programs such as therapeutic boarding schools or summer camps for overweight children; (7) surgery.

In 2010 the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recommended that doctors refer obese children and their families to "comprehensive moderate to high intensity programs that include dietary, physical activity, and behavioral counseling components." These interventions should include more than 25 hours of contact with the child and/or family.

Both panels concluded that education about diet and exercise is valuable, but not as effective as behavioral counseling.
 

Labels: weight loss

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