This is the conclusion made by Australian researchers from the Ramsay Health Care medical center after conducting a special study published in the Obstetrics & Gynecology journal.

As recommended by the US Institute of Medicine, the women with normal body weight should gain 11-15 kg during the period of pregnancy, the women with excess weight – 7-11 kg, and obese women – 9.5 kg.

However, for many pregnant women with evident signs of obesity it is useful to get rid of extra pounds rather than to gain weight during this period. This will not harm their health and the health of the child and will also reduce the risk of possible complications during pregnancy, such as diabetes and hypertension, associated with overweight.

The researchers have analyzed the data from four randomized clinical trials in which 537 pregnant women received advice on healthy eating and were told to keep daily records and count their calories. It was found that the pregnant women, who took care of their diet and controlled body weight, gained 6.4 kg less weight on average, compared with those, who did not. Also it has been revealed that a decrease in body weight during pregnancy causes no harm to the health of children.

According to Dr. Raul Artal, head of the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and women’s health at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, women with obesity can maintain body weight during pregnancy, or even lose up to 4 kg, without any damage to their health and that of a child.

The scientists do not advise pregnant women to have a strict diet. Instead, they recommend to consult a doctor and find the right diet and physical activity level.

Pregnancy is the perfect time to start a healthy lifestyle and approach healthy weight!

The scientists have been studying the height and weight of the parents and children from 7000 families for 5 years. The analysis of Body Mass Index (BMI) has shown that when both parents have a lower index, the probability that the child will be thin is 16.2%. But in the cases when the index was higher, the probability of being fit was only 7.8%.

The index of thin children was about 18.5 or lower, though normally the index should be 18.5 – 24.9. If the index ranges from 25 to 29.9, the child is overweight, and in the cases when the BMI exceeds 30, one can diagnose obesity.

By the way, when both parents were overweight, the child was thin in only 5.3% of cases, and if they were obese, only 2.5% of the children were slim.

The head of the research, Dr Katrina Whitaker from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London admits that the researchers had already been discussing the connection between the parents’ weight and their children’s cases of overweight before this study. But thin children and their parents had never been in the focus of their attention.

It is well known that all genes have two versions called alleles. Most likely, the genes responsible for weight also exist in two versions: the first one is associated with low weight, and the second one – with obesity. Accordingly, fit parents have more “skinny allele genes” which they can pass on to their children.

Source of the image: Photl.

The study reinforces the common wisdom that fat people have a positive attitude. Sense of well-being may be due to hormonal and neuroendocrine features that accompany overweight. It may also be because a person gave up fighting overweight and learned to love him/herself the way he/she is.

About 40 000 adolescents took part in the research that established a connection between body mass index and depression. The connection was relevant for both boys and girls. Nevertheless, more girls were depressed, although they were less numerous in comparison with their peers of the opposite sex. While boys associated obesity or extra pounds with depression, girls had mental problems due to being even slightly overweight.

Source of the image: Photl.

Obesity Stats

The problem of obesity cannot be called purely American. “The epidemic of overweight” has embraced not only the USA, but Europe and Asia as well. 38% of European children aged 5 to 18 are overweight, and in China 20% of children suffer from excess pounds.

The saddest statistics still comes from the homeland of fast food: every other American child has a problem with overweight. If previously 50% of the population suffered from excess weight, the figure has now risen to 68%. The doctors are especially frightened by the fact that 17% of children older than 2 years suffer from obesity.

In China, the problem of excess weight has become especially acute after the introduction of the “one family – one child” policy. Together with the increasing income of the population, the number of children with the “little emperor” syndrome is also growing. They lead a sedentary life, spending all their time at the computer with a delicious meal.

How to Treat Obesity in Children?

Different countries have different methods of fighting against excess weight. In the UK, all children of pre-school age are prescribed physical education classes. China has created “diet” camps for children who are overweight. Guides and former military people force the children to be engaged in intensive physical training.

How to Treat Obesity the Radical Way?

But the staff at the Harvard School of Public Health believe that only stress will lead to the desirable result. The scientists have called termination of parental rights the most effective way of struggling with childhood obesity. School activists believe that temporary withdrawal of children from families would benefit all. On the one hand, the child will probably try to lose weight and get back home, and on the other hand, this will make the parents seriously change their lifestyle.

The experts support their opinion with evidence. Their theory has been tested on a girl suffering from obesity. The parents could not provide her with a balanced diet, and the child was sent to a foster family. A year later, she lost 52 kilos and was able to return to her parents.

It is quite clear that this initiative has ardent opponents. Art Caplan, the biologist of the University of Pennsylvania, contradicts the scientists from the Harvard School and believes that one just needs to change the culture of food consumption. Separating the child and the parents can be justified only in one case – if the child is in mortal danger.

What Causes Obesity?

Previously it was thought that excess weight is only present in the countries with high incomes. However, now there is a sharply increasing number of overweight people in the countries with low living standards.

• food intake exceeds energy expenditure;
• disturbances in the systems of the pancreas, liver, small and large intestines;
• genetic disorders.

What Contributes to Obesity?

• sedentary lifestyle;
• consuming simple (easily digestible) carbohydrates, such as sugar, pastries, and cakes;
• endocrine disorders (hypogonadism, hypothyroidism, insulinoma);
• being prone to stress;
• lack of sleep.

Source of the image: Photl.

The researchers headed by Dr. Lindsay Gray held a long-term study, in which 20 thousand men participated voluntarily. It was found out that those men under test who had a high bodymass index at the age of 18, died of cancer in their adult life up to 35% more frequently than their peers who had normal weight. Obese people had a 50% greater lung cancer risk, which didn’t depend on the fact whether they were smokers.

Experts are alarmed about the situation, as the rising rates of obesity in the world today seem threatening.

Source of the image: Photl.

According to one of the leaders of a recent study, Professor Du Feng from the University of Western Texas, this is due to the fact that adolescent girls, who have a TV in their room, tend to spend in front of the screen much more time.

As a result, they have less active lifestyle and prefer watching their favorite TV shows rather than having some mobile activities. In addition, a TV-set, as noted by Dr. Feng, helps to increase the amount of fast food eaten by the participants of the expertiment. In total, during the experiment the scientists have observed 597 children aged 5 to 9 years and interviewed their parents. The experts have taken into consideration the information regarding sex, age, height and weight of the children, and their daily habits.

It has been discovered that 75% of children have a TV-set in their room, while 32% of boys and girls are either already overweight or facing a serious risk of obesity. So, these kids spend on average 3.5 hours per day watching TV, while others spend in front of the screen 2.58 hours per day. In addition, the children who have a TV-set in their room eat fewer fruits and vegetables, and the scientists point out that it is associated with the content of commercials that promote unhealthy lifestyles.

Source of the image: Sheknows.

Taking into account that the problem of childhood obesity in the United States becomes more important, this kind of advertisement, appealing directly to minor children and bypassing their parents, is recognized as “illegal practices”. However, the defendant reacted to the accusations in a specific way. McDonald’s solicitor said it was exclusively the problem and the fault of the plaintiff’s that she could not make her daughter ignore the advertised toys. At the moment, the giant restaurant is being one of the largest distributors of toys. The case is transferred to federal court.

Source of the image: Dailycontributor.

As demonstrated by their study, in such cases the body of the child experiences epigenetic changes: the activity of genes that regulate fat metabolism is suppressed. And it does not matter whether the expectant mother has excess weight. The child of a slender mother, who was eating incorrectly, runs a stronger risk of being ill with obesity than the child of a woman with overweight, who was having a balanced and substantial diet during pregnancy.

Source of the image: Photl.

As a matter of fact, psychologists have always known that the idea how a woman should look, the idea of her appearance, her figure and weight is formed in her childhood. This process begins at the age of 3 or 4 years and is already complete by the age of 10. Thus, toys (along with the media and the attitude of surrounding people) actively develop the younger girls‘ concern about their own appearance and figure. The authoritative Science journal studies this issue in the news review.

The scientists decided to check how different dolls affect the girls’ appetite. During the experiment which involved 120 girls the psychologists asked them to play with dolls of different body types: those of slim, medium, and “plump” constitution. Then the children were seated at the table and offered to eat.

The authors of the experiment thought that the girls who had been playing with thin dolls would eat worst, but the result was completely different. The group who had got the dolls with medium constitution turned out to eat best. But, according to the Science journal, the dolls with evident “obesity” definitely suppressed the girls’ appetite.

Source of the image: Photl.

Scientists argue that stillbirth causes are in a combination of different factors, such as insufficient research funding, ignorance among mothers and midwives, the increase of a number of women with major risk factors, such as obesity, late pregnancy or diabetes. Scientists believe that in most cases, stillbirths could be avoided.

One of the well-known stillbirth risk factors is overweight. According to the statistics, a quarter of the women whose child was stillborn or died within the first 28 days after birth, were obese.

Other risk factors include smoking, diabetes, pregnancy after 40, as well as multiple pregnancy. Stillbirth causes also include pre- and post-delivery bleeding, congenital anomalies, preeclampsia and various infections, such as, for example, streptococcus group B.

Source of the image: Photl.

The study that embraced more than 300 children aged from 4 to 10 investigated the interrelations of sleep schedules and Body Mass Indexes (BMI) of pre-teens. The results, published in the Pediatrics journal, show that the recommended amount of sleep places children at the bottom of the obesity risk scale. On the other hand, those who have an irregular sleep pattern or sleeping problems run the risk of being overweight by 4.4 times.

Sleep deprivation is fraught with other health threats like abnormal levels of cholesterol, insulin and the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein; these factors can later raise the possibility of developing cardiovascular diseases or type 2 diabetes.

Scientists requested that parents allow their children get as much sleep as they want and stay in bed as long as they want during weekends. The recommended 9.5 hours per night was found to correlate with the healthiest metabolism.

Moreover, when children who get insufficient sleep make up for the deprivation on weekends or during holidays, it can lower the risk of growing up overweight by about 3 times. But catching up on missed sleep is a longer process where one has to put in practically the complete amount of sleep lost during weekdays.

Source of the image: Photl.

Speaking precisely, 32% of the US children 9 months of age were found to be obese or manifesting a high risk of obesity; 34% of this number show the likelihood of developing obesity by the time they are 2 years old. Nevertheless, of the 9-month-old children who were registered overweight not all retained this condition when they turned 2. With obese children, though, the rate of those remaining obese by the age of 2 is considerably higher, reaching 44%.

The findings of this study countermand the results of a previous study carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that rated obesity with children within 2 – 5 year range at nearly 12%.

Those statistics make experts accentuate the grave importance of childhood obesity and designate it as one of major health issues of the country.

Lead researcher Brian G. Moss pointed out the advantages of trying to bring down obesity at the earliest stages of kids’ lives instead of applying treatment when they are already obese. He also reminded that one of the causes of early obesity is “improper early introduction of cereal” when added to the baby’s bottle.

Source of the image: Cbsnews.

The child’s weight is five times higher than that of a normal toddler. He is also very tall for his height – 108 centimeters.

Doctors have discovered the child has hormonal disorder. The experts fear that the boy’s heart may not stand such a rate of body increase.

The boy’s mom – Xiao Lin said that her son has a strong appetite: “He likes eating. He immediately puts anything he sees into his mouth”.

A special diet was prescribed after the boy’s mother has seen a doctor.

Source of the image: Allvoice.

The study reports that over 70,000 teenagers belonging to 34 nations have excess weight or are obese, mostly due to spending too much of their time at TV sets, computers or just chatting with their pals. All these activities make a sedentary lifestyle heavily predominant among our kids.

The study further says that not more than 25 per cent of the boys exercise properly. This percentage is even less with girls, showing that most of the children tend to neglect exercise.

The tendency is the same in all countries, WHO official Regina Guthold points out. “With regards to physical activity levels, we did not find much of a difference between poor and rich countries,” she said, stressing that it is a worldwide problem.

WHO officials warn that as long as children prefer to stay glued to TV sets and computers and shirk exercising, children obesity – that has already gained the characteristics of an epidemic – will be getting worse by the year.

Source of the image: photl.com.

Mrs. Simpson is dreaming of entering the Guinness World Records again (she became the world’s fattest mother in 2007) and she’s trying as hard as she can to get what she want. Donna, who wears XXXXXXXL dresses, tries to move as little as possible and her daily calorie intake amounts to 12,000 calories. Her favorite food is sushi, but, unlike other people, she can eat 70 of them in one go. Cakes and doughnuts are her next favorite foods.

With $750 weekly shopping bill, one of the major expense items for her is food. To cover these expenses, Donna has set up a website where visitors pay to watch her eat junk food.

Instead of condemning Donna’s behavior, her partner Philippe, whom the woman met on a dating site for overweight people, keeps encouraging her, although he’s relatively skinny (Philippe’s weight is about 150lbs).

Donna’s story can be a good example to show psychological causes of overeating in women. Her mother thought that food was a good way to show how she loved her children. She never let anyone (including doctors) to say anything offensive about excessive weight of her children. As a nine-year-old, the girl weighed 180lbs. Donna’s mother died soon after and her father married again. Stepmother had Donna keep a strict diet, but she snatched food from the kitchen. As a teen, Donna started worrying about her weight and began to take slimming pills. Without pleasures she used to enjoy, the former fat girl lapsed into depression. She felt miserable and couldn’t stop thinking about food. She got her weight back and immediately felt much happier.

Donna married a chef, which did no good to her weight. She kept packing on pounds as her husband thought chubby women were sexier. Sadly, her marriage fell to pieces. Donna was 31 when she decided to lose weight and was set to have gastric band surgery. But just weeks before the surgery, Donna’s friend died during a similar surgery. So Donna thought that was a sign and she didn’t need to change. Some time later, she came across a dating site for obese people. Once Donna revealed her real weight she was flooded with…admiring e-mails from men.

She keeps on gaining weight, despite putting her own life at risk. Donna admits that she loves food and people like to watch her eat. It makes people happy and doesn’t harm anyone.

Source of the image: telegraph.co.uk.

The study that appeared in Health Affairs reveals that about 27 per cent of the daily calorie intake children get from snacking.

“Our study shows that some children, including very young children, snack almost continuously throughout the day,” lead researcher Barry M. Popkin points out.
And the youngest ones, with the age range between 2 and 6, are reported to get the largest amount of calories from snacks – 182 calories a day over what they get with their regular meals.

Popkin writes that those findings demonstrate that children in the United States are not only put at risk of gaining unhealthy obesity in the long run – they may acquire a dysfunctional eating pattern fraught with other health threats.

The scientists’ advice is for parents to cut down snacks to prevent the forming of an unnecessary habit, and replace unhealthy sugar-loaded snacks with fruits and vegetables.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/ckforjc.

It happens due to the setting of food preferences – by this age the child usually has figured out what his or her favorite food is, which forms the base of eating habits later in life.

Some children already begin to gain weight too fast before they are two, their lifestyle having proved to be conducive to becoming obese.

The study accentuates that an unbalanced and insufficient diet, solid food taken too early backed up by physical inactivity are the factors that make up the serious threat of future obesity.

Although statistics tell us that childhood obesity isn’t growing like it used to, its level is still high enough for scientists and medics to keep looking for new strategies that would ensure slimmer figures and healthier hearts for our children.
Lead researcher John Harrington says that the study focuses our attention to the earlier stages of the child’s life in order to find a better strategy that will allow us to control the current trend of obesity.

Source of the image: photl.com.

There’s a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that fills us up on this omission.

The study reports that there is direct correlation between the time when parents begin to introduce complementary food into the child’s diet and the child’s body mass indexes (BMI) when he or she grows up.
The chief factor that is certain to lower BMIs in adulthood is, of course, long breastfeeding. But the time spoon-feeding begins also proved to be of importance. The earlier the child gets complementary food the greater his or her risk of gaining weight later in life. Therefore it is better to postpone spoon-feeding until the baby is past the sixth month.

“The later you introduce complementary feeding to an infant, within the range of 2 to 6 months, the smaller is the risk that the infant will be overweight as adult,” is the conclusion of lead researcher Kim Fleischer Michaelson of the University of Copenhagen.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and American Academy of Pediatrics are unanimous in recommending breastfeeding for the first six months and postponing complementary food for as long as possible. Late spoon-feeding can reduce the risk of becoming obese by 5 to 10 percent.

Michaelson holds that spoon-feeding should better be delayed until the fifth month in any case.

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/.

As a man’s weight increases so his chances of becoming a father decreases. The researchers studied more than 300 couples undergoing IVF treatment. Dr. Hassan Bakos of the University of Adelaide, Australia, said that as parental body mass index increased, successful pregnancy rates plummeted.

Couples involved in the study were either undergoing IVF treatment or an alternative procedure. Almost 80 percent of male participants were either overweight or obese. The man’s weight played no role at the initial phases when embryo develops. However, by day four of embryo cell division, when genetic factors become important, signs of impaired development were found. The evidence suggests that DNA damage and oxidative stress are to blame, according to Dr. Bakos.

So before planning on pregnancy, both partners have to try to make their weight normal to increase their chance of conceiving a baby.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/asifthebes.

Back in 1980, British Birth Cohort Study involving 6 500 10-year-olds was initiated in England. Child psychologists studied self-esteem of boys and girls, their emotional characteristics and measured their body mass index (BMI).

Twenty-odd years later, the experts set out to analyze BMI and emotional state of at then already grown-up participants. Psychologists compared self-esteem of children and their emotional issues with their weight as grown-ups. They found that children with lower self-esteem, higher anxiety and other emotional issues were more likely to gain excessive weight in adulthood, with women being at a higher risk.

Scientists believe that early psychological support may help improve this problem. It requires the cooperation from parents, however. The reasons for low self-esteem and anxiety in children always lie in the family. It could be strained relationship between spouses, or parental attitude towards children – excessively strict upbringing, repeated humiliation, lack of attention or, on the contrary, a total absence of authority and control.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/lusi.

73 percent of children aged between 8 and 15 were unaware of how unhealthy diet might impact their lifespan. About 45 percent of surveyed kids were dead sure that among the worst things about junk food were weight gain, caries and becoming unpopular with peers.

Latest studies show that about two thirds of children will be obese by 2050, and today’s youngsters can pioneer as the generation that won’t outlive their parents, according to the foundation’s representative. Obesity is known to be one of the risk factors of heart disease. That’s why the foundation launched its Eat Smart initiative.

The campaign is trying to get children interested in physical activity. Under the program, schools can receive the instructions on how to play dodgeball, balls and posters. In addition, on-line game Yoobot was re-launched this year, designed to make children choose healthy food and exercise. In the game, kids can create their own character and monitor how its health changes depending on its diet and the level of physical activity over a long period of time. Last year, kids created over 1, 25 million characters.

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/sfllaw.

The woman had several diseases, which were preventing her from conceiving: polycystic ovaries and thyroid gland pathology. She needed to lose weight in order to have IVF. Within a year Rachel dropped over 110 lb (50 kg) and now she weighs 150 lb (68 kg). By the time she was to visit the reproduction center, she realized that she was already pregnant.

Gynecologists remind us, that excess weight is a major cause of infertility. Losing weight increases the chances to conceive.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/christgr.

These children are born with reduced weight and waist circumference, and the possibility of their scaling up weight is three times less to that of their siblings conceived before mom trimmed herself down.

The study also shows that their cardiovascular markers being in a much better shape (that means lower cholesterol levels and reduced insulin resistance), such children are better protected against developing heart disease or diabetes in future.

Therefore slimming through surgery is a scientifically acclaimed means to ensure better health for the coming child.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/bies.

Birth size, the study says, is in direct dependence on the development of the nervous system. A smaller child was discovered to be more prone to having breath difficulties during sleep which will lead to disturbed sleep and maybe nightmares in later life.

Lead researcher Anu-Katriina Pesonen is sure about the dependence of good sleep on the weight and length of the child at birth. “We showed that even within children born healthy and at-term gestation, smaller body size at birth increases the risk for poor sleep.”

The birth size of the child is mostly governed by the genetic factor, but the child may be born smaller for several other reasons, including prenatal drinking even in moderate quantities and chronic depression.

No connection between prenatal smoking and sleep disturbances in the child has been discovered.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/bonesdog.

Dr. Kathleen Janz, the author of the study, explains that children who are physically active during the pre-school period less often become overweight during school years than those children who are not active. Scientists call it “savings effect”, since children receive the “dividends” from their early activities in the future (similar to the way it works with the savings bank accounts).

The protective effect of physical activities does not depend on how active the child is when he/she is older. Thus, we can conclude that even five-year-olds need to be maximally active, as they will be rewarded for those activities as they get older.

Avoid long periods of inactivity (more than one hour) and make sure to bring your child outside as much as possible. Even ten extra minutes of physical activities per day can make a difference in the future by protecting your child against weight problems.

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/emeryjl.