Childhood Obesity seems to be levelling Out

According to researchers from King's College, London, who conducted a study that analysed data on 370,000 children's weight gathered from GP practices, found that more than a third of children aged between 2 and 15 are obese or overweight. But the childhood obesity crisis seems in part to be levelling out. Between 1994 and 2003 rates increased by an average of 8% each year but the following decade between 2004 to 2013, the number of children that were overweight or obese increased by only 0.4% each year. However this isn't the time yet for parents to pat themselves on the back as although younger children are less likely to be overweight or obese these days, either because we've reached a saturation point, where all the children who are likely to become overweight and obese in this environment has or government and school initiatives and better understanding of nutrition has made a difference, it's too early to know for sure. However the group of children aged 11-15 seems to be increasing. Prevalence in this group has risen from 26.7% in 1996, to 37.8% in 2013. Dr Colin Michie, chair of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health's Nutrition Committee, said it was no surprise that rates were high among this group of children, "this group are beginning to find their independence and unfortunately, it is also this age group who are likely to be easily influenced by the world around them, through advertising and access to pocket money priced fast food," he explained. Eustace de Sousa, national lead for children , young people and families at Public Health England, said: "Obese children are more likely to experience bullying, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease in later life." So what to do? If you have a child in this age group try to find ways to keep them healthy. For example try to encourage them to come back home each day for dinner, so they can have a well balanced meal instead of them visiting the local 'chicken shack' shop or chippie. Encourage them to do exercise or join a sports team as doing regular exercise will make them more likely to make healthier meal choices and activities will help to control body weight better. So it's good news in some part but more needs to be done to finally stamp out obesity in childhood for good and ensure the next generation is fitter and healthier than the last.

How Investing In Facilities For Dog Owners Could Help Fight Obesity

According to a study by the University of Liverpool investing in facilities for dog owners may help to tackle physical inactivity in people who own dogs. With almost a quarter of UK households owning a dog, it's estimated that 40% of owners don't walk their dogs and less than 50% of UK adults manage to perform the government's recommended 2.5 hours of exercise a week. The study found that those who didn't live near a good quality area, where their dogs could be let off their leads and have access to dog waste bins, were less likely to walk their dogs. Also a lot of owners were unsure how much exercise their dogs even needed. Leading this study, Dr Carri Westgarth said, "with such a large proportion of people having a dog, it seems that better education, facilities and improved relationships with our pets could be a great way for a large portion of the population to feel encouraged to exercise." Lindsay Johnson from Cani-fit, whose company provides professional exercise training for both dogs and their owners said, "trail running is fantastic for fitness and strength and as a result of exercising with their dog, a strong bond forms-stronger than owners have seen before."

Lack of Exercise is Twice as Deadly as Obesity

According to a new study conducted by Cambridge University, lack of exercise is twice as deadly as being obese. A study of 3334,000 people from across Europe, with the average age of around 50, was conducted over a 12 year period. The researchers estimated that 337,000 of the 9.2 million deaths amongst men and women in Europe each year was caused by obesity but twice this number could be blamed on lack of physical activity. They discovered doing even small amounts of exercise a day, burning as little as 100 calories, such as a brisk walk for 20 minutes had major health benefits and reduced the risk of premature death. However the researchers still advised that we should still be doing more than this to fully get the health benefits that physical activity can offer such as reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

Sticking to Good Habits

Happy New Year to you all. Hope you all have started your training routines again or for the first time. It's so easy to have all these good intentions at the start of the new year and before the turkey left overs have finished, a lot of people have already given up and have fallen back into their old unhealthy routines. Why is this? There are a few factors that can contribute to giving up including injury, family/work commitments, boredom, cost and feeling it's all too much to take on. In this article I will help you understand the reasons why people give up and how you can over come this and still be keeping fit through to 2016 and beyond:- 1.) Don't take on too much- This is a biggie. People decide all at once that they want to join a gym 5 times a week, give up drinking, smoking and go on a diet all in one go. What do you think is going to happen? Burn out of course. If this sounds like you cut it down to 1 or 2 changes at a time. This will improve your chances of sticking to the regime 10 fold. Start to go to the gym 2- 3 times per week, then when you feel fit enough then add a class or two. Start to eat healthier, if you don't eat breakfast try a protein shake or have some wholegrain cereals or cut out all the fizzy drinks and sweets and replace with water and fruit. These small changes will add up and will help you to move forward and take on more things as you get fitter, rather than feeling overwhelmed and giving up completely. This will also reduce the risk of injury if you start off doing less in the gym, in order to allow your body to get used to your new routine. Remember quality over quantity. Doing a little bit is better than doing nothing at all and you can give yourself time to create a strong foundation to build upon and launch your healthier self. 2.) Boredom- It's easy to get bored and so always choose an activity that you enjoy already. If you love walking or running do that, if you prefer to work in a team and this gives you motivation than join a football or rugby team. Try something completely different to help stimulate both the mind and body. Try a new class that you've never done or try weight training if you always do cardio in the gym. Set yourself goals to help you to focus and check your progress. Give yourself a short term goal of 3 months, a mid term goal of 6 months and a long term goal of a year. In this way you can see your progress as time goes by and you have a plan in place to keep you on course. 3.) Cost- There are plenty of activities you can do which are either low cost or even free. Park Run is an organisation which runs 5K runs on Saturday mornings in local parks around the country and is completely free-check out www.parkrun.org.uk for further details and the nearest run to you. 4.) Family/work commitments- You need good time management for this one. Think of any time that you can make yourself available. What about getting up a little bit earlier to go for a morning run before work, or cycle to work instead of using the car or public transport, that way you can save pounds as you lose the other kind. Take a walk after lunch during your lunch break or run from work back home again. Why don't you take the family out for a bike ride, play football in the park or go for a walk or run. Park Run does a junior run as well on Sunday mornings for 4-14 year olds, so you can run with your child, keeping all of you fit. So you can see that following these tips can help you stick to your new good habits and kick those bad ones for good.