Throughout the developed world there is an increasing prevalence of childhood obesity. Because of this increase, and awareness of the risks to long term health that childhood obesity presents, the phenomena is now described by many as a global epidemic. Children, Obesity and Exercise provides sport, exercise and medicine students and professionals with an accessible and practical guide to understanding and managing childhood and adolescent obesity. It covers: overweight, obesity and body composition; physical activity, growth and development; psycho-social aspects of childhood obesity; physical activity behaviours; eating behaviours; measuring children’s behaviour; interventions for prevention and management of childhood obesity. Children, Obesity and Exercise addresses the need for authoritative advice and innovative approaches to the prevention and management of this chronic problem.
Throughout the developed world there is an increasing prevalence of childhood obesity. This book provides sport, exercise and medicine students and professionals with an accessible and practical guide to understanding and managing childhood and adolescent obesity.
Throughout the developed world there is an increasing prevalence of childhood obesity. This book provides sport, exercise and medicine students and professionals with an accessible and practical guide to understanding and managing childhood and adolescent obesity.
Understanding the relationship between energy balance and obesity is essential to develop effective prevention programs and policies. The International Agency for Research on Cancer convened a Working Group of world-leading experts in December 2015 to review the evidence regarding energy balance and obesity, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries, and to consider the following scientific questions: (i) Are the drivers of the obesity epidemic related only to energy excess and/or do specific foods or nutrients play a major role in this epidemic? (ii) What are the factors that modulate these associations? (iii) Which types of data and/or studies will further improve our understanding? This book provides summaries of the evidence from the literature as well as the Working Group's conclusions and recommendations to tackle the global epidemic of obesity.
The prevalence of childhood obesity is so high in the United States that it may reduce the life expectancy of today's generation of children. While parents and other adult caregivers play a fundamental role in teaching children about healthy behaviors, even the most positive efforts can be undermined by local environments that are poorly suited to supporting healthy behaviors. For example, many communities lack ready sources of healthy food choices, such as supermarkets and grocery stores. Or they may not provide safe places for children to walk or play. In such communities, even the most motivated child or adolescent may find it difficult to act in healthy ways. Local governments-with jurisdiction over many aspects of land use, food marketing, community planning, transportation, health and nutrition programs, and other community issues-are ideally positioned to promote behaviors that will help children and adolescents reach and maintain healthy weights. Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity presents a number of recommendations that touch on the vital role of government actions on all levels-federal, state, and local-in childhood obesity prevention. The book offers healthy eating and physical activity strategies for local governments to consider, making it an excellent resource for mayors, managers, commissioners, council members, county board members, and administrators.
Understanding the complex factors contributing to the growing childhood obesity epidemic is vital not only for the improved health of the world's future generations, but for the healthcare system. The impact of childhood obesity reaches beyond the individual family and into the public arenas of social systems and government policy and programs. Global Perspectives on Childhood Obesity explores these with an approach that considers the current state of childhood obesity around the world as well as future projections, the most highly cited factors contributing to childhood obesity, what it means for the future both for children and society, and suggestions for steps to address and potentially prevent childhood obesity. This book will cover the multi-faceted factors contributing to the rapidly growing childhood obesity epidemic The underlying causes and current status of rapidly growing obesity epidemic in children in the global scenario will be discussed The strategies for childhood obesity prevention and treatment such as physical activity and exercise, personalized nutrition plans and school and community involvement will be presented
Based on decades of scientific research and clinical experience, Safe and Effective Exercise for Overweight Youth provides a scientifically supported and clinically relevant source of information that clinical health care providers, educators, public health, and fitness professionals may use to promote physical activity in overweight and obese youth of all ages, including those with significant obesity and chronic health conditions, such as hypertension, asthma, and type 2 diabetes. It presents a best practices model for implementing clinical- and recreational-based physical activity interventions. The first five chapters offer an overview of the existing scientific literature supporting individualized, tailored exercise prescriptions for overweight and obese children with and without comorbidities. They also contain exercise instructions, illustrations, and sample lesson plans to improve cardiopulmonary endurance, muscular strength, power and endurance, and muscular flexibility. This information provides the basis for the recommendations provided in the subsequent chapters, which include specific guidelines for prescribing exercise to overweight children along with verbal cues or "talking points," clinical reminders, and handouts to assist health care providers. The text provides a 40-week exercise curriculum with lesson plans, discusses the importance of regular medical and self-monitoring, and offers easy tools and techniques for health care providers to track a child’s progress. Chapters also supply detailed clinical and field protocols to aid in measuring health and fitness outcomes, describe realistic expectations, and present the U.S. recommendations for promoting physical activity and fitness in youth. The final chapter summarizes current studies to support future research on physical activity for the prevention and management of pediatric obesity.
Features fun, kid-friendly activities to get them moving A positive and safe plan for lifetime weight management Concerned about your child's weight? This practical guide provides effective strategies for improving nutrition, increasing physical activity, and dealing with weight issues at home and in the classroom. You'll see how to change your family's lifestyle, help your child make healthier choices (and stick to them!), and foster a lifetime commitment to health and fitness. Discover how to * Introduce good eating habits * Keep your family fit and active * Prepare healthier meals * Maintain your child's weight loss * Find outside professional support * Fix over 30 tasty recipes
Nearly one out of every three adults in America is obese and tens of millions of people in the United States are dieting at any one time. This has resulted in a weight-loss industry worth billions of dollars a year and growing. What are the long-term results of weight-loss programs? How can people sort through the many programs available and select one that is right for them? Weighing the Options strives to answer these questions. Despite widespread public concern about weight, few studies have examined the long-term results of weight-loss programs. One reason that evaluating obesity management is difficult is that no other treatment depends so much on an individual's own initiative and state of mind. Now, a distinguished group of experts assembled by the Institute of Medicine addresses this compelling issue. Weighing the Options presents criteria for evaluating treatment programs for obesity and explores what these criteria mean--to health care providers, program designers, researchers, and even overweight people seeking help. In presenting its criteria the authors offer a wealth of information about weight loss: how obesity is on the rise, what types of weight-loss programs are available, how to define obesity, how well we maintain weight loss, and what approaches and practices appear to be most successful. Information about weight-loss programs--their clients, staff qualifications, services, and success rates--necessary to make wise program choices is discussed in detail. The book examines how client demographics and characteristics--including health status, knowledge of weight-loss issues, and attitude toward weight and body image--affect which programs clients choose, how successful they are likely to be with their choices, and what this means for outcome measurement. Short- and long-term safety consequences of weight loss are discussed as well as clinical assessment of individual patients. The authors document the health risks of being overweight, summarizing data indicating that even a small weight loss reduces the risk of disease and depression and increases self-esteem. At the same time, weight loss has been associated with some poor outcomes, and the book discusses the implications for program evaluation. Prevention can be even more important than treatment. In Weighing the Options, programs for population groups, efforts targeted to specific groups at high risk for obesity, and prevention of further weight gain in obese individuals get special attention. This book provides detailed guidance on how the weight-loss industry can improve its programs to help people be more successful at long-term weight loss. And it provides consumers with tips on selecting a program that will improve their chances of permanently losing excess weight.
Children's health has made tremendous strides over the past century. In general, life expectancy has increased by more than thirty years since 1900 and much of this improvement is due to the reduction of infant and early childhood mortality. Given this trajectory toward a healthier childhood, we begin the 21st-century with a shocking developmentâ€"an epidemic of obesity in children and youth. The increased number of obese children throughout the U.S. during the past 25 years has led policymakers to rank it as one of the most critical public health threats of the 21st-century. Preventing Childhood Obesity provides a broad-based examination of the nature, extent, and consequences of obesity in U.S. children and youth, including the social, environmental, medical, and dietary factors responsible for its increased prevalence. The book also offers a prevention-oriented action plan that identifies the most promising array of short-term and longer-term interventions, as well as recommendations for the roles and responsibilities of numerous stakeholders in various sectors of society to reduce its future occurrence. Preventing Childhood Obesity explores the underlying causes of this serious health problem and the actions needed to initiate, support, and sustain the societal and lifestyle changes that can reverse the trend among our children and youth.
