When planning exercise for your child the following points should be take into consideration
- Activity must involve large muscle groups to induce large energy expenditure. Examples include walking, cycling, swimming, dancing, skating, basketball, and soccer. By performing such activities for 30 to 45 minutes, children can burn 200 to 250 kcal. This amount will vary according to the body weight of the child and the intensity of exercise.
- It is the total energy expenditure, rather than the intensity of the activity, that matters. For example, walking 1 mile will have an almost identical effect to that of running 1 mile. At the start of a program, the intensity and duration of the activities should be low and gradually increase as the program progresses.
- Activity must be fun, and the child should enjoy it. A play-like, recreational atmosphere is particularly important for children in the first decade of life. Using ‘lifestyle’ exercises will help increase enjoyment and adherence.
- Children are more active outdoors than indoors. Temptations for inactive pursuits (eg, TV watching, computer games), as well as for snacking, are greater indoors than outdoors. Reduction of sedentary pursuits, such as TV viewing, will help divert the child to more active pursuits.
- Water-based activities are often more suitable for overweight children than land-based activities. The advantages of aquatic activities are threefold:
- Because of their high fat content, overweight individuals are more buoyant than their leaner peers;
- subcutaneous fat is an excellent thermal insulator, which gives overweight people an advantage in cool water, and
- during water-based activities, most of the body is submerged. This provides a psychological advantage over land-based activities in which the body shape of the overweight child is exposed.
