Exercising to fight childhood obesity  Most of the efforts to reduce childhood obesity have focused on reducing calorie intake. A new study indicates that increasing exercise is a better solution:

VIGOROUS PHYSICAL ACTIVITY VS CUTTING ENERGY INTAKE

In a recent letter to the Physical Activity and Public Health On-Line Network, Professor Bernard Gutin, of the University of North Carolina wrote, "Recent evidence suggests that efforts to prevent child obesity are more likely to succeed if they emphasize vigorous physical activity rather than restriction of energy intake. The key principles are:

(1) studies of physical activity interventions should use as an outcome measure some index of fatness rather than weight;
(2) restriction of energy intake is contrary to the biologic needs of growing children; and
(3) vigorous exercise is more effective than moderate physical activity.

"Because of the time delay between the emergence of new evidence and its actual application, it will take years before we see publications of studies based on these ideas. In the meanwhile, I would be interested in hearing from people who are formulating or implementing interventions that focus on vigorous physical activity rather than restriction of energy intake." Contact:

*See "Child Obesity Can Be Reduced With Vigorous Activity Rather Than Restriction of Energy Intake," Obesity (2008) 16 10, 2193D2196.

Labels: childhood obesity

posted by Bruce Wright at 10:58 AM #