The Family and Teen Obesity

Often children and teens are more at risk of becoming overweight if they have two overweight
parents. Although in some cases, this may be due to a powerful genetic factor, or it may be because they are modeling themselves after what they see their parents eating. Also physical activities, if any, they take part in, can indirectly affect the teen.

Activity

On average, an American child will spend several hours each day watching television or on a
computer. Compare this to years ago, when this time would have been spent doing some form of physical activity instead. There are a large amount of teens and children who are now overweight, as they are expending little energy, and often eat high calorie snacks while watching TV or playing on the computer. Today in the US, about 1/3 of elementary school children carry out some form of physical education, and less than 1/5 take part in physical activity programs after school.

Heredity

Recently, information has shown that heredity can influence fatness in a child and teen. It was
found that children born to overweight mothers have been found to be less active, and often gain more weight by the age of 3 months compared to those children born to mothers who are a normal weight, which suggests a possible inborn drive to conserve energy.

We will look at various ways in which help can be provided to overweight teens, and how they can lose weight successfully without them resorting to fad diets etc.