Obesity / Motapa

Obesity or being overweight is a growing epidemic problem among children, leading to increase in diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and other serious health effects. Many kids are spending less time exercising and more time in front of the TV, computer or video-games. And today's busy families have fewer free moments to prepare nutritious, home-cooked meals. From fast food to electronics, quick and easy is the reality for many people in the new millennium.

It is also well known what you have to do to lose weight, by eating less and exercising more. And if it is hard for adults, you can expect that it is even harder for kids, who don't necessarily understand the negative health effects of being overweight.

Stopping Weight Gain

An important first goal for most overweight kids is to simply stop gaining weight. So just find out how much extra weight your child gained in the past year and adjust his diet to compensate for these extra calories. Keep in mind that this 'extra weight' is above what your child would be expected to normally gain each year.

Extra Weight Gained Last Year	Number of Calories to Eliminate Each Day
1 pound	10 calories/day
5 pounds	50 calories/day
10 pounds	100 calories/day
15 pounds	150 calories/day
20 pounds	200 calories/day
25 pounds	250 calories/day
30 pounds	300 calories/day

Cutting back on the above number of calories each day should help your child to stop gaining weight. If your child is not very overweight and he hasn't finished puberty yet, then not gaining more extra weight might be not enough, as he gets taller and 'grows into' his weight.

Diet Analysis

Although you don't need to count calories each and every day and know where every fat gram is coming from, you do need to understand your child's diet to help him lose weight. Just provide healthy meals and snacks and encourage regular physical activity.

Some good questions to answer include:

• How many calories does your child get from the things he drinks?
• How many snacks does he eat?
• What are his portion sizes like?
• On average, how many calories does he get at each meal?

After you look closely at your child's diet for a few days or a week, you should be able to see patterns of where the extra calories come from. Cutting back on calories might be as easy as eliminating a bedtime snack, changing to diet drinks or low fat milk, or not super-sizing his portions.

Exercise

More exercise and being more active is another good way to stop gaining and losing weight. you had to cut back your diet by 50 calories a day to lose 5 pounds a year, you could also exercise to burn an extra 50 calories a day and lose weight or even better, do a combination of both. Encourage your child to burn 50-100 calories a day in 30-60 minutes of regular activities by walking, roller blading, bicycling, or playing baseball, basketball, badminton or soccer. You can get more help from your pediatrician and/or a registered dietician.