Does Exercise Help Obese Kids?
When children eat quality foods, i.e fruits, vegetables, whole grains, instead of fat laden foods and empty calorie foods, i.e. luncheon meats, cookies, fruit snacks, they are much less likely to have a weight problem regardless of the amount of exercise that they get. Researchers now believe that overweight children exercise less because they are less fit than their slimmer counterparts. The weight comes first, then the refusal to exercise. This new focus is replacing the idea that kids are overweight because they do not exercise.
About the Author
Peggy Kraus is a clinical exercise physiologist at Southampton Hospital in New York. She received her Masters degree in Professional Physical Education from New York University and after many years in commercial and corporate fitness settings has been in the cardiac and pulmonary rehab setting now for 10 years. Her job duties include educating rehab patients about the link between exercise, nutrition, and good health. Peggy has been published in IDEA’s Fitness Journal and in AFAA’s American Fitness, and her continuing education course, Atherosclerosis: Causes, Consequences, and Treatments, is offered in CEU4U’s nursing course catalog.
