Well I got a girl named Boney Maroni
& She’s as Skinny as a Stick of Macaroni!

Hard to believe but that was the song that my Dad sang to me when I was a child. That quickly changed with puberty and estrogen transformed my body from straight to curvy then quite round. Common wisdom at the time was starvation diets from the Scarsdale to fasting liquid protein. Those helped me to lose weight quickly, only to pack it back on plus more until I ballooned to over 200 lbs.

We’ve learned a lot about healthy ways to lose weight but our society has abandoned many healthy habits that kept us thin to begin with. More than 30% of children in the United States are now overweight or obese.

The majority of children 10 yr and older, who are obese, will become obese adults. This is the first generation that is expected to die at a younger age than their parents due to the health consequences of obesity.

Michelle Obama is leading the charge to fight childhood obesity with her Let’s Move campaign and even Jamie Oliver has a new show called Food Revolution to help the “fattest City in America” get healthy.

There is no magic bullet for weight loss for kids or adults but I’ve come up with Dr. Deb’s 5-step Attack Kid Fat plan to help you and your kids feel better and be healthier.

1. Stop the Pop

This past fall, several kids on my son’s team did not “make weight” for the first football game. The kids had been starving all week because they had not prepared over the summer. After the weigh in, the parents brought out the 64 oz sports drinks and candy bars since the kids were “starving.” They didn’t get to play yet they were drinking 350 empty calories and eating several hundred more.

Pop is the beverage of choice among adolescents and it combined with juice, and sports drinks contribute to 15% of total daily caloric intake according to a recent survey. Liquid calories are quickly digested and do not stop hunger as solid calories would.

Serving size has skyrocketed from 6.5 oz, 20 years ago, to the 44 oz super size today. One daily supersize, can add an extra 500 calories a day or a pound a week of weight gain. Even a 20 oz pop has 18 teaspoons of sugar!

An 18% soda tax has recently been considered as a recent study predicts a 5-pound weight loss for the average American if enacted. Water is a preferred beverage as hunger is often mistaken for thirst and it has zero calories. Milk is also important, as most teens are not getting the recommended 1500mg of calcium per day for growing bones.

2. Slash the Screen Time

Screen time is any time in front of a screen such as television, movies, video games and cell phones. The average American child spends 7 1/2 hours each day on screens according to a recent Kaiser Permante study and that does not include the average 1 hour and 35 minutes a day of texting that the average 7-12th grader reported. Television watching has been directly linked to obesity in childhood, with a rate of obesity that is 8.3 times greater in children who watch over 5 h of television per day compared with those who watch 2 h or less of television per day. It’s not just the inactivity that leads to obesity. Most of the advertising directed to children are unhealthy food ads.

Children when engaged in screens can control the entire environment and often resent being interpreted. I know my kids are angry when pulled from their screens. When we make our home screenless, it is amazing how much more reading, interacting and more pleasant they become. Screens also promote mindless eating which packs on the pounds.

3. Play 60

The NFL has partnered with Michelle Obama to raise awareness that children should play 60 minutes per day. We would like to see a family movement where parents put on the gym shoes and join their kids in some playtime. All adults should have physical activity time too. A study this week in JAMA shows 60 minutes of walking a day will prevent weight gain without change in diet.

Exercise is critical for not just expending calories and losing weight but it will help boost metabolism and decrease stress and depression that is so very common.

The NFL Play 60 has lots of ideas, games and contests.

4. When you Eat, Take a Seat

Riding in the car does not count! Sharing a meal has become a lost art. Sit down to all meals without distractions such as television or other screens and try to eat most of your meals at home. 1/3 of American, ages 4-19 eat fast food daily and it is estimated that increases their weight by 6 lb per year.

As of yesterday, the new health care law with require nutritional information on restaurant menus!

With four kids we are constantly running from lessons to practices every night after school but we make a point to sit down to dinner even if it means we eat at 4:30. I have become the pro of grilled whatever lean protein is on sale and a vegetable bag in the microwave for a quick meal at fraction of the cost of going out.

Every March we take the Eat In challenge where we don’t buy any food at restaurants for the month. The average cost for the 6 of us going out to eat is 50.00 dollars for an OK restaurant (plastic silverware but no sporks) but I can feed us at home for easily less than ten.

5. Color me Healthy

Every meal and snack should have color, primarily in the form of fruit and vegetables. White’s not right and some brown, needs to be down! Keep carrots and grapes at eye level in the fridge or put them on the table when the kids get home from school. Avoid white bread, rice and other starches. Brown should come in the form of whole grains, not crackers or fried foods.

Diets don’t work! They slow your metabolism and  feeling deprived only leads to binging later.

The most important thing is not to belittle your child and focus on the pounds, but making healthier choices to feel better. Remove as much temptation in the house as possible but be sure and indulge in some treats occasionally away from home.

I eventually learned to stop the dieting, embrace my curves, and maintain a healthy weight. While I will never be skinny minny again, I plan to live a long life and teach my 4 children to do the same.

Blessings,

Dr. Deb