I think if we asked any parent why he thinks children end up being obese, I would have the answer: because they eat a lot and move little. Others would add questions such as genetics, metabolism, bone width, fluid retention and I don't know how many more things, some true and others very debatable.
On the "eat a lot" a study has been done recently in order to calculate exactly what are the daily caloric needs of children and adolescents and know how many extra daily calories does a child need to start being overweight or obese and they have seen that they are many more than they thought.
Some study data
The study, which has been published in the magazine The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, try to update the mathematical model used to calculate the energy needs of children, taking into account that the metabolism of children is more active than that of adults and that as they reach adolescence, energy expenditure tends to slow down , because they no longer move as much as when they were young children.
In addition to this, they have seen that the calories needed for children to gain weight above the logical or expected were more than they thought. In the mathematical model used to date, it was estimated that for a girl of normal weight at five years of age to gain 10 kg of overweight by ten years she should consume an extra 40 kcal per day, which is the equivalent of a small apple.
According to the new calculations it seems that what this girl would have to eat, in reality, are about 400 kcal more, which would be the equivalent of an average serving of french fries.
In the case of children, the number of calories is a bit different. For example, an eleven-year-old boy who is 8.2 kg overweight has eaten about 320 kcal more per day than children with normal weight. If it were a girl, I would have consumed 301 kcal more.
The researchers wanted to use the new calculations to know data from the American population, so taking the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the USA. UU. they saw that today's children weigh, on average, 5.9 kilos more than in the late 70s and estimated that to achieve that increase they have consumed some 200 more kcal per day, which is equivalent, now that we are in summer, to a vanilla and chocolate cone ice cream, more or less.
So, it is worse than it seems
These data come to show, then, that the way many children eat is worse than it seems, more unbalanced than we thought. Before it was believed that only a child spent a little, only to take 40 kcal more, and began to accumulate more weight than necessary. Apparently, the body has defense mechanisms to avoid passing a little accumulate fat so easily (it must be the defense mechanism against mothers who persecute their children to eat one more tablespoon).
Now, that defense mechanism has a limit, and it is not the same that the child eats a few extra teaspoons every day, those that do not feel like it but that mom or dad have managed to get on the plane, to eat half pizza el solito, sitting there on the couch, watching drawings or the "magnificent" and "educational" series of the Disney Channel, or that everything that his parents have put on the plate is finished because apparently that is said "my child eats well".
It is clear that if children now weigh up to 5.9 kilos more than their parents and grandparents at the same age, something else that genetics is working. A few days ago, after talking almost a quarter of an hour with a mother about how she can modify her daughters' diet, which has a lot of weight left over with 4 and 7 years old, and in addition to recommending her to look for family activities in which everyone moves more than they move now, he released me, like that, that "what is clear is that they have gone out to their father's family ... they are all like that, so no matter how much they do they will not lose weight" .
Well, do not try to change their habits now that they are small, let them continue eating the same and continue to enjoy "soffing" (said by her) and if that, when they are older, try all the diets and for having with the same success of those who lose 12 kilos and then recover 20. I did not tell him this (although I won), but I did say that although genetics is an important factor, so is the fact that eat too much, in a messy way and do not do any type of exercise.
Hunger and thirst
I am almost certain that nobody knows a mother or a father who goes behind their children with the glass of water so that they finish it: "Hey, don't get up from the table, finish the glass, water is left!" Surely it seems funny to you for the absurd. Well, yes, it is like that, you are right, it is absurd to not be able to, because that's why children are thirsty, to know when they need water. In fact, they spend the day saying "Water !, I want water!", Which they usually ask for, in addition, at the precise moment you sit down and there you go to prepare them a glass of water that they drink instantly without there is no satisfaction in you.
However, the theme of food goes apart. Children have the same mechanism to know when and how much they have to eat, only that, to differentiate it, instead of calling it "thirst" we call it "hunger."
And here yes, many parents have the habit of ignoring it and of try to control the food your child should eat. That if you eat little, that if you see the ribs, that if it is very bad to eat, that if you eat well, but thanks to being forced, that if you do not finish the dish, etc.
Well, I will say the same thing that I say to all the mothers and fathers who have the same concern: "Leave him, if he eats little it is that the anti-crisis child has left you, who knows that the thing is not enough to spend. The weight is fine (It usually is, and if it is a little low, it usually coincides with the fact that the father or mother were equally thin as children), so don't force him. Then they all arrive at thirty and all on a diet and kill themselves in the gym to lose weight. "
