Health professionals determine if children are obese by measuring their body mass index, or BMI, and comparing it to other children of the same age and gender. Your BMI indicates the estimated amount of body fat you have in terms of your height and weight, but not features such as your frame or amount of muscle. Children are obese when 95 percent or more of children the same age and sex have a lower BMI.
Causal Factors
Children become obese when they consume more calories than their body uses for energy and metabolism purposes and normal development and growth, explains the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. Although various factors may contribute to the imbalance between calorie consumption and calorie usage in obese children, research has not yet established a definite link between such factors and childhood obesity, the federal agency also notes. Researched issues that may lead to obesity during childhood include behavioral traits, environmental characteristics and genetic features. For example, some children may become obese because they tend to overeat, grow up around others with poor dietary habits or have a hereditary disorder that causes them to gain a large amount of weight.
Role of Diet
Trends related to the diet and eating habits of children in the United States indicate certain nutrition tendencies may correlate with the rise in childhood obesity, states the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Relevant patterns include increased snacking, drinking more beverages sweetened with sugar and consuming more food outside the home. Children are also eating breakfast -- which many health professionals consider the most essential meal of the day -- less often and consuming fewer than the recommended five minimum daily servings of fruit and vegetables. In fact, almost half of the vegetables children consumed in 2000 consisted of potatoes fried in oil.
Significance of Exercise
Children need regular exercise not only for appropriate development and growth, physical fitness and good health, but also to help burn off the unused calories they have consumed. Yet, children participated in physical education at school 14 percent less often in 2003 than in 1991, and not even a third of high school students exercise enough, reports the CDC. Many children also spend a lot of their leisure time on sedentary activities that do not require physical exertion but often lead to increased eating and snacking. These activities include playing video games, watching television and working on a computer. Inadequate physical activity may lead to obesity especially when children do not reduce the number of calories they consume accordingly, points out the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Potential Complications
Carrying excess weight during childhood can lead to numerous health problems both in childhood and adulthood. Research shows overweight children are 70 percent more likely to be overweight or obese as adults, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Childhood and adulthood obesity can also increase your chances of developing such serious health problems as arthritis, asthma, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes. For instance, 70 percent of obese children have one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol, and 39 percent have two risk factors or more, says the CDC.
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