Childhood Obesity
Guest post from our lead youth coach Jacob McLaughlin….
The US is going through an Obesity Epidemic that is affecting almost every person in America. Looking at statistics from 2016 39% of adults were OBESE. This is very troubling because it’s not saying 1/3 of Americans are overweight, but they are so overweight they fall into the Obese Category. When combined with Overweight the number sky rockets to 70% of US adults are Overweight or Obese…
Now I’m sure you have heard of the adult rates before, but what is really troubling to me is the KIDS Obesity Rates. From ages 2-19 years of age the Obesity Rate was 18.5% in 2016! As the ages go up the rates increase in that age range!
The reason that this is so troubling is 1 in 5 kids are obese. Not overweight, but obese. This is when they’re growing and should be at some of the healthiest moments of their life!
Contributors for the childhood obesity epidemic:
1. Less Activity- which includes screen time, more than 40% of kids have 3+ hours of computer/television time daily.
2. Nutrition- More families are going to what is easy and fast rather than what is healthy. Diets are too high in fats and sugar.
3. Less Physical Activity in School- Schools are cutting physical activity time/classes to make way for more advanced courses.
There are many more contributors, but you get the point!
I’m super passionate about this because this is the time of life kids should enjoy their free time, opportunity for activity, and time for being a normal kid and being active.
First way to start making a dent is by having your child move and just incorporate more activity. That’s why we have started a fitness class for the youth at Jeremy Scott Fitness.
My only hope from this post is that it opened your eyes to how serious the obesity rates are in our country.
Until next time …do something active and keep being awesome!
P.S. -If you have a youth intersted in learning more about healthy nutrition, fitness, and lifetyle –CLICK HERE to learn more or message me to get them signed up…..it can be game changer not just for your youth but the entire family.