Deborah Kotz of U.S. News & World Report wrote a wonderful article on the battle to help children maintain or attain a health weight. This was in the September 10th issue, but I only saw it recently at a doctor’s office. I won’t cover the entire article but I’d like to pull out some of the most interesting and important (IMHO) points.

Research group Trust for America’s Health just published a report indicating that one third of kids nationwide are overweight now and that the percentage of children who are obese has more than tripled since the 1970’s.

Unfortunately, parents and educators are often taking the approach that if we make children feel bad about being fat or scare them half to death, that they’ll be motivated to lose weight according to Joanne Ikeda, nutritionist emeritus at the University of California - Berkeley, who studies pediatric obesity prevention. She says, “It hasn’t worked in adults, so what makes us think it will work in kids?”

While eating too much and exercising too little clearly put children’s health in jeopardy, so might the methods used to change their behavior. As with any losing war, this one lacks a battle plan that everyone agrees upon. While some people think the solution lies in focusing more attention on body weight by screening kids at school and education them about the dangers of obesity. Others worry that these sometimes “overzealous efforts” may push teens into seeking quick and unhealthy weight loss remedies such as risky behaviors instead of incorporating exercise or a more nutritious diet.

About 65% of teens who reported being teased about their body weight were more likely to engage in binge eating which leads to weight gain over time. Further,when parents harp on children’s body wight, their kids are more likely to become preoccupied with achieving thinness (as opposed to becoming healthy). Finally some weight loss strategies that are effective for adults such as daily weighins and restricted diets may trigger diet-pill use and purging in teens.

So how do we help our children without pushing them into bolemia, anorexia or life long obesity? Most experts now favor a positive approach - showing, for example, ways that excercise strenthens the body and refreshes the mind and how certain nutrients in foods help cells, organs and bones grow properly.

GOOD NEWS: There are programs that hundreds of schools are now effectively using to educate our children. Planet Health is a curriculum developed by Harvard University researchers that disguises obesity prevention by integrating healthful messages about the power of food and exercise into various subjects. Students in math class, for example, come to appreciate the importance of reducing TV viewing by calculating the hours they’ve spend overtheir lifetime in front of the set. One study found that middle school girls who had Planet Health in their schools were half as likely to purge or use diet pills as those in schools without it.

Another program which has been adopted by 7,000 elementary schools nationwide is CATCH, the Coordinated Approach to Child Health, which puts focus on good health habits instead of weight. In class, students use a traffic-light system to identify “go,” “slow,” and “whoa” foods and take breaks to do jumping jacks. One study found that the program succeeded at preventing the growth in number of overweight students that normally occurs from grade 3 to grade 5.

AT HOME. Parents will have the biggest impact on their children so the most important thing they can do is to model healthful behaviours - not preach them - by avoiding fad diets, skipped meals, and too much junk food and by hitting the gym and planning active family outings on a regular basis. A slew of studies have shown that teens who regularly eat home-cooked family dinners enjoy healthier weights, higher grades, lower rates of smoking, less depression, and a lower risk of developing an eating disorder.

Make your home conducive to good habits: a fruit bowl on the kitchen counter, cut-up vegetables in the fridge, jump-ropes in the garage, a basketball hoop in the driveway. Introduce healthful foods again and again even if the child refuses to eat them, since research shows it may take 10 to 12 sightings before a picky eater lifts fork to mouth. Don’t enforce a clean-plate rule because while toddlers up to age 4 naturally regulate their own intake, older children eat out of habit, even when they’re feeling full.

Well, I encourage you to check the full article out, but I thought the advice was helpful and based on solid research.

I was having a conversation with a girlfriend the other day and we got around to the subject of weight loss. Imagine that!! To give you some background, I’ll give you my weightloss history (in a condensed version). I’ve essentially struggled with weight my entire life and I’d say I’ve spent approximately half my life overweight. I was a chunky kid in elementary school. I remember comparing stomach’s with a friend who was also chunky to see who had the bigger stomach. At age 10, my mom and I went on a diet together. By my recollection, I think I lost about 10 pounds. This put me in good shape for my junior high and high school years where I actually was a perfect weight but the stigma had already set in and I remember feeling throughout that period that I was “fat.” Looking back at my pictures, I get frustrated at all that emotional energy that I spent on that when in reality I looked great.

I stayed fairly healthy until about age 24 or 25 when over the course of about a year, I put on almost 60 pounds. There was a triggering event to which I attribute this weight gain, but the pattern was set in motion. I remained this heavy until about a year after the birth of my first child at which point I decided to join Weight Watchers. Over the next year, I took off almost 50 pounds and achieved “Lifetime Weight Watcher” status.

My next trigger event was my next pregnancy where, I swear, the instant I found out I was pregnant I gained 20 pounds! Which, of course, eventually put me over the 200 lb. mark again. I took off about 20 pounds by returning to Weight Watchers, but couldn’t seem to find the motivation to continue with the program. Then I discovered Atkins!! Wow, the weight seemed to melt off. I was able to get back down to a respectable size, just in time for my sister’s wedding.

Time passed and my third trigger event occurred, I applied for and was accepted into the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. I again watched the weight creep back on seemingly helpless to stop it. It felt like either concentrate on getting my MBA or concentrate on losing weight but my brain/willpower/whatever?? wouldn’t allow room for both. I started freaking out a bit as I started to see the 200 mark looming closer and closer. By now though I was dealing with school, work, raising kids, a broken wrist requiring major surgery (dominant hand), and plantar fasciatis on both feet which would eventually require surgery as well.

I went to my doctor and begged her for phentermine. She has been my doctor for 7 years and so knows me quite well. She dislikes prescribing phentermine, but, given my inability to exercise and all the other craziness, she was willing to try (provided I stay under strict medical supervision). I’ll never forget when I picked it up from the pharmacy the pharmacist said (in kind of a snotty voice), “You know, most people regain all the weight they lose on this.” I wanted to say, “Yeah, that’s true for most diets isn’t it!” But I didn’t think of it until, I’d gotten home.

Fortunately, for me, it has worked. I have lost about 20 lbs. while using the drug and an additional 10 lbs. outside of it and am still losing. Getting back to my conversation with my girlfriend…I was talking about how it was like I was finally able to make the decision to lose weight. I never seem to know what the trigger for that “I’m ready to lose weight now” decision is. Each time, I have lost weight it was the same…I just made the decision and it actually stuck. This is of course outside of the hundreds of false starts I’ve had. I’ve started a new diet every other week for months on end and would not have the will power to stick to it.

I wonder how it is for other people? I never really felt I was a yo-yo dieter, yet as I read my story I see that trend. Well, my hope is that this is the final up and down and that this will one will stick.