Chances of them learning about living healthy from their family is very slim where an exception can be a family of professional athletes. But that’s it!

Recent studies indicate that around 16% of children between 6 and 19 years are obese. Growing at an extremely alarming rate 15% more are at the risk of becoming over-weight. If you’re in a snake-oil weight-loss industry then you need to celebrate but if you have kids between 6 and 19 in your household and you seriously believe that they’re NOT healthy then you need to pay attention.

Reasons of Child Obesity

Children need physical activity. They need to go out and play. Kids must move their body, get tired, sweaty and full of dirt. But unfortunately, the current American lifestyle rarely permits them to lose weight. All they’re left with is a lot of burden – of studies, family and relationships. Healthy food is disappering from their plates. They’re forgetting that eating breakfast can work wonders for them in losing weight.

National guidelines recommends a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity – that’s just 2 hours and 30 minutes! Even if your child considers going to a health gym for 5 days in a week it’ll be just 30 minutes that he needs to invest for his healthy future.

Another major reason for the increasing child obesity trend is fast food. Fast foods have done more harm to America with  regards to health than any other thing. It is estimated that fast foods result in an extra 6 pounds of weight gain in children.

Genetics can also play an important role in child obesity. Kids of obese parents inherit their obesity. Socioeconomics also plays a key role. While for some societies like Afro-American the obesity increased with increase in better socioeconomic conditions. The opposite is also true for White girl teens who showed a loss of weight as the socioeconomic conditions improved.

Sedentary lifestyles, using cars as the only mode of transportation, peer pressure are some reasons that add to the problem.

Effects of Child Obesity

We’ve already seen the causes of Childhood Obesity. While some causes are beyond our control we need to remember that every once in a while we see people completely changing their lives by reducing weight in adverse physical conditions. Kids making news by losing 100 lbs is not very unusual and can be done through a strong will!

If not checked, the effects of Child Obesity can be long-lasting, often lasting lifelong with the obese victim.

Several studies link low self-esteem to child obesity. Even when these kids grow up and live a successful life, they somewhere seem to have a low self-view about themselves. They often hate public speaking, taking part in social sports or even taking part in social parties.

Chances of getting a coronary heart disease increases several folds even with a found pounds of weight gain as a child.

“If you’re trying to prevent this problem, then you want to establish good food habits early. You want to keep children away from the food industry messages to eat unhealthy food. It could be that earlier years will be the best time to begin that education,” says Dr. Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale.

Obese children make a world of their own. These kids often have too much of their own burden that they better stay away  from getting some more of it by unkindly people who try to humiliate them rather then help them. Remember, obesity is in itself a punishment and if you make the child’s life any more miserable then you’re contributing in ruining that kid’s life.

Its high time that parents dismissed the obesity with baby-fat. Instead, they need to prove as role models making healthy choices everytime. Of course, they can treat themselves every once in a while but it is solely upto you!

If you know of any over-weight kid and want to share their problems, challenges then please do so in comments below!

You can lose weight without going to the gym or any other time and effort demanding activity

Wouldn’t your life be much better if you lost some weight? Actually, lose some weight without commiting time for the gym, jogging or other tiring and effort-demanding activity? Well contradictory to popular belief there is a way that works VERY well when you want to reduce weight without doing any exercise.

There is a very simple equation there is at work for weight gain or for that matter weight loss. The amount of calories we intake provides us with energy to perform everyday work. It depends on age, metaboism rate, the type of work you do – people that do a lot of physical activity require more calories.

But it doesn’t just stop here. We also BURN calories.  If we burn less calories than we take then weight is gained. On the other hand if we burn more calories than we take then we lose weight.

So if you’re wondering why some people don’t seem to gain extra pounds then this is the little secret for their constant weight.

1 pound of weight comprise of 3500 calories. You burn 3500 calories – you lose 1 pound weight. That’s simple! Even if you just burn 500 more calories everyday then you lose 1 pound in a week. That’s 4 lbs in a month! 48 lbs in a year! How much does this excite you?

Does Thyroid cause weight gain? I have Thyroid – is that the reason I am losing weight? Does my weight gain have to do anything with my Thyroid? These questions get popped up all the time. But few have the right answers.

But whats the real relation between weight loss/gain and thyroid? Well, there’s a complex relationship beween thyroid, your weight and metabolism. If you don’t know, Oprah has gained 40 pounds and she blames it to her thyroid problem and this post was inspired by her.

Metabolism as defined by Wikipedia -

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in order to maintain life.

The metabolism is regulated by the Thyroid gland. When Metabolism is measured at rest it is known as BMR which stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. It was once used as the primary indication of thyroid status for detecting overactive or underactive thyroid hormones but nowadays it isn’t used because it is complex and is easily influenced by other factors other than the thyroid.

Now there are 2 types of Thyroid

• Hyperthyroid
• Hypothyroid

For time being just keep this in mind -

HyperThyroid = Weight Loss

HypoThyroid = Weight Gain

HyperThyroid

HyperThyroid patients experience weight loss. HyperThyroid is overactive state in which the thyroid glands secret more hormones than they would in a normal course. In very simple terms, it consumes more calories which ultimately results into weight loss. The person suffering from HyperThyroid will maintain his or her weight if the amount of calories taken is equal to that consumed by hyperthyroid. Hyperthyroidism is said to increase hunger and some people may actually increase weight if their intake of calories is more than the consumption.

Why do I gain weight when hyperthyroidism is treated?

You also gain weight when HyperThyroidism is treated because now the hormones don’t consume more calories they they do in normal course of action. This leads to increase in the calories present inside the body and thus the weight is gained. So if you were thinking of taking thyroid medicines for weight loss then it wouldn’t be of much help!

HypoThyroid

HypoThyroid leads to weight gain. This is attributed to the low BMR. The intensity of the Hypothyroidism is directly proportional to the weight gain. In simple terms, the more intense Hypothyroid you have the more likely you’re to gain weight.

But the weight gained is not so significant which many people account it for. It is generally within 10 pounds in most of the cases.

As always you should always consult the doctor before coming to any conclusions or taking medicines.

Useful Articles on Thyroid:

• Thyroid and Weight[ Thyroid.org ]
• Weight Gain: Thyroid Gland to Blame? [ WebMD ]
• Fatigue, Weight Gain and Thyroid [ Thyroid.ca ]