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Excerpt
from the book:
Is
My Child Overweight?
When
Jeff was four years old, he was normal weight.
At six, he was slightly overweight. By eight, he was a little more than
chubby. Schoolmates teased him and overlooked him when they picked team
members for sports. It also didn�t help that Jeff�s knees and ankles hurt
when he tried to run.
His breathing was heavy, his face turned red, and he�d sweat buckets
after just five minutes of basketball.
Being
physically active hurt (so did the teasing), so Jeff spent less time moving
and more time in front of the television with high-calorie snacks. The food
helped him forget how uncomfortable he felt. Eventually, he avoided sports
altogether, believing he couldn�t keep up with the other kids. It wasn�t
long before he discovered video games, which became his greatest escape. Soon,
it was difficult for him to do an activity as simple as climbing the stairs.
Jeff�s
parents thought he would �grow into� his weight.
But he didn�t.
By the time he was ten years old and came to our clinic, he weighed
almost twice what he should for his age.
A trip to our clinical lab revealed that although his muscle weight was
normal and his bone density was average for a boy his age, 55 percent of his
total body weight consisted of fat (a healthy range for boys his age is 16-25
percent, and male athletes often have below 12 percent).
Jeff�s
aerobic fitness score was 60 percent lower than that of other ten-year-old
boys. He had difficulty walking faster than three miles per hour (four miles
per hour is considered brisk walking). He became completely exhausted and
couldn�t continue to walk at a moderate speed after only five minutes.
Jeff
was severely overweight.
He joined our program, began eating differently and participating in an
exercise program designed for his condition and specific needs.
We worked with his pediatrician to structure a safe diet plan.
One
year after entering our program, Jeff has maintained his 54-pound weight loss.
He participates in track and field.
His baseball team�with Jeff playing first base�won the district
championship. The football team that didn�t let him play the year before
because he was too heavy won Regionals with Jeff as quarterback. Meanwhile,
Jeff�s Dad now walks two miles every morning.
He claims his son changed his life. Jeff�s mother also decided it was
time to tackle her own weight problem, and credits her son as her biggest fan.
Success
stories like this fuel our work.
So do the phone calls we receive every day from frustrated or anxious
parents, health-care providers, and overweight children themselves.
Since childhood obesity is a new phenomenon, most people�including
doctors�feel defenseless in the battle against it.
To complicate matters, the methods that help adults lose weight usually
don�t work for kids. Our research and experience have taught us that
children require a different approach to weight loss�one that can stop a
vicious cycle unique to overweight children. Our program features an arsenal
of practical tools that can put an end to that cycle, resulting in active,
healthy, happy children.
The
Vicious Cycle of Overweight in Children
It
only takes a few extra pounds on a youngster to make his clothes feel
uncomfortable, his movement restricted, and his enthusiasm for physical
activity plummet.
When he slows down, weight gain speeds up.
Typically,
children begin gaining unnecessary weight between the ages of three and seven
years. By then, they are spending a good deal of time sitting behind a desk at
school. After school, they might play video or computer games, or watch
several hours of television. Meanwhile, they may be eating fast food three to
six times per week (the national average).
With those habits, children can easily become overweight or chubby by
age seven. Even so, they may not experience any physical repercussions
(especially if they�re under 12), except when they exert themselves during
active play.
Then, they are likely to become short of breath, overheated, and sweat
heavily. At this point, an overweight child may begin to feel inadequate at
sports or other physical activities. He participates less, leading to a more
sedentary lifestyle, which exacerbates weight gain. If this vicious cycle is
ignored, he could easily become chronically obese.
This
is why excess weight in children is considered both a chronic disease that
requires lifelong monitoring (similar to diabetes and heart disease) and a
vicious cycle that must be stopped.
Some
serious long-term consequences of childhood weight problems are emotional in
nature. Overweight children are targets of early and systematic discrimination
not only by their peers, but also from family members and society as a whole.
To make matters worse, overweight girls tend to mature earlier than their
normal-weight friends. Early maturation has been associated with low
self-esteem and low self-efficacy (a feeling that they are unable to be
successful at anything they do).
The
Trim Kids Program addresses the vicious cycle on all fronts through
nutritional changes, increased daily activity, behavior modification, and
formal exercise. The families who commit to the program are claiming victory
in the battle against this vicious cycle in overweight children.
You can, too!
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