Childhood Obesity Research Paper

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INTRODUCTION
For many decades, physical health has always been a constant concern in our society. The concept of energy in and energy out, along with calories consumed vs. calories burned seems to be a solid theory given the laws of physics, but does this truly apply the human body as well? This research paper serves to identify some of the key factors relating to the causes of obesity in children through analyzing various studies specializing on the topic. In our society today there is an ever growing rate of childhood obesity; children that should be fit and healthy are plagued by poor health and increasing weight gain, which leads us to question, does high/moderate intensity exercise prove to be more beneficial for weight loss in children? …show more content…
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years, by the year 2012 over one third of children and adolescents in America were considered obese. While this is not news that would be considered shocking, over the recent years there has been notice of an increased amount of childhood obesity; newer generations of children seem to be more susceptible to obesity than previous generations.
With each new generation there seems to be an increase in the number of children and adolescents that are recognized as obese. There seems to be ongoing speculation that there is something that we, as a population are doing that is causing this rise in obesity. The intensity of physical exercise has been the ever constant belief of many, and in relation to the physics law of conservation, energy or calories taken into the body should be equal to the amount expended in order to maintain an ideal body …show more content…
Home-based programmes are designed to maintain control over subjects, providing the benefits of privacy, convenience and accessibility without having the participants worry about menial things such as transportation. The Paediatricians and Family Practitioners scouted a group of eighteen obese children and adolescents to participate in the study. The primary goal of this intervention programmed was designed to improve behavioral skills in individuals by encouraging them to adopt and maintain a physically active lifestyle and to steadily increase consistent physical activity. This was hoped to be achieved through counselling sessions; individuals were also given pedometers to record the amount of steps allowing them to see the numerical values of their physical activity rate. Anthropometric measurements were taken and subjects were encouraged to keep a detailed diary.
This preliminary study proved to have an effect on the amount of physical activity in obese children; even though it was but a small change, it was considered a significant decrease in body fat percentage. Some limitations for this study included a small sample size with only 18 participants as well as the lack of a control group. While this study did produce results regarding weight loss amongst the participants, many only adhered to low-moderate intensity. This programme also served to provide more of a counselling intervention
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