Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Obesity

What an ugly, ugly word.

An adult is obese if his BMI is 30 or greater.
BMI = Body Mass Index.
There's a handy dandy calculator here.
My BMI is 33.9

Food is much to difficult to think about, right now. Instead, even though it is cold, even though winter is coming, even though going outside is tough, I want to focus on physical activity.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adults need 150 minutes a week of moderately intense excercise (such as a brisk walk). That's three 10 minute walks, 5 days a week. They also encourage muscle work twice a week. Personally, I think it's crucial. I just may devise a simple stretching and muscle toning regime. I wonder what resistence bands cost?


And children need one hour a day! This includes all kinds, though. Muscle resistence, bone strengthenng and aerobic activity. Yikes.

My poor kids. I don't give them that much time. My daughter will grab her bike and ride up and down the alley--but my son? When I send him outside, he grabs a book to read. He's even tried that on family walks! According to the numbrs at the CDC site, he's in the 97th percentile for boys his age and height with respect to his weight. Yes. He's heavier than 97% of his fellows. I really need to stop being in denial about the child I used to refer to as my "Biafra boy."

What am I going to do?

3 comments :

scb said...

That's one of the things about regular school -- even those of us who'd rather be reading a book (like me) got sent out to play ball or soccer, whether we had any skills or desire to play or not. I think we'd have been better served if we'd been taught ways to find exercise modes that we could carry into real life with us. How that would be achieved, I'm not sure, but making exercise fun, and not calling it exercise, would have helped me. "Sports" did *not* help me. It just made me feel inadequate and klutzy and made me want to escape into a book.

Mella DP said...

Ironic, isn't it - weren't you having trouble getting him to read voluntarily, too? (At one of my elementary schools, the PE teacher and the librarian were the same person - that was weird. I got in trouble for not participating in games *and* for trying to check out books from the wrong grade level. Sigh.) Pity there aren't easy solutions.

Anonymous said...

I have been obese for a long time. I went to the doc this week. Apparently, he believes the symptoms I've been feeling are due to stress (thanks, and that will be $215) Anyway, he asked me how much I exercise. I said 2-3 times per week, but sometimes less. He said "Really, you should get 30 min of exercise at a pace of 15-min miles five to seven times per week." Easier said than done! Like today when I planned to go after sending out a proposal, which I ended up driving to the place, only to miss the deadline, sigh. And, missed out on exercise.

Anyway, re: your son...I was like that as a child. I don't know what to tell you. My parents never encouraged exercise aside from occasional walks. I preferred reading and art (as I still do) but I don't know how I would have felt if I'd been encouraged to do more active stuff. Maybe find some new activities?

Oh and resistance bands: cheap.

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