Childhood obesity – parent compass – your magazine for pregnancy, baby – family

Some kids have unhealthy eating habits. While some eat little or no food, others eat much more than […]

Childhood obesity

Some kids have unhealthy eating habits. While some eat little or no food, others eat much more than their bodies need.

These children suffer from obesity. They are also called obesity. Those affected are usually very overweight and display eating habits that can cause lasting damage.

Because eating a lot not only increases weight, it also makes work more difficult for your own organs. This can have serious consequences, at the latest in adulthood.

Causes of obesity

Obesity usually has something to do with wanting to fill a gap in yourself. You feel empty, useless or of no use.

Children who tend to be overweight due to their genes have a particularly difficult time. You are used to being fat. This in turn can lead to you being teased by others. If you then no longer feel comfortable in your own body, you become sad. Then you manage even less to take care of your own health.

Obesity can always have a variety of causes. It may also be a condition that causes the body to gain more weight than it needs. Some medications can also lead to obesity. The birth control pill, for example, can cause water retention in the body.

If people are under stress for an extended period of time, eating disorders and obesity can also develop.

Obesity – what is it exactly?

The BMI is used to calculate whether someone is overweight. This is the "body mass index". This English word describes the relationship between body weight and height. Because bigger people can be a bit heavier than smaller ones. You can calculate your own BMI using the following formula:

BMI = body weight in kilograms: height²

The number calculated from this should be less than 25. If you get a value of 30 or more, you are considered obese. The healthy normal range is around 18.5 to 25. This is especially true for adults. The normal BMI in children can be slightly lower.

If you want, you can calculate your BMI yourself. If it is not within the normal range, a visit to the doctor is advisable. He can give you more information about it.

In addition to the BMI, body fat distribution is also important. Depending on what type you are, body fat accumulates in different places. A distinction is made between pear and apple types.

Pear-type overweight people are mostly women. They have wide hips, thighs and a large bottom. Although this body shape can damage self-esteem, it does not pose a very great risk to health.

Apple types, on the other hand, are mostly men. With them, the fat accumulates in the area of ​​the abdomen. In contrast to the pear types, apple types run the risk of suffering from serious complications. High blood pressure (the heart needs a lot of effort in these people) and diabetes are two of these diseases. They are very common in overweight people.

People suffering from obesity should go to a nutritionist and seek advice. Because nutritionists can measure the level of obesity very well. In addition to the BMI, the waist-hip ratio is also calculated.

This is how overweight kids feel

Some kids tend to eat attacks without being really overweight. In order not to get fat, they then vomit (bulimia) or go on a diet afterwards.

Most children with uncontrolled eating habits will sooner or later become overweight. They eat more and faster than others. They feel more comfortable than if they don’t eat anything. After a feeding attack, they may feel depressed or guilty. Some even disgust themselves.

This has an extremely negative effect on both the psyche and the body.

Physical side effects

While one-off or infrequent feeding attacks have little impact on the body, bad eating habits can have serious consequences in the long run.

Many sufferers suffer from cardiovascular problems. They come in quickly sweat, if they have to do physical education or have to walk to the bus.

In addition, chronic diseases such as arteriosclerosis or diabetes can occur. This also increases the risk of later having a heart attack or stroke.

Joints and spine have to bear the weight of obese people every day. You have to endure more than normal people. This can damage the joints and intervertebral discs in the spine. This in turn means that you have to lie in bed for a long time and are restricted in movement. Exercise is out of the question after such damage has occurred. This can further increase body weight, which makes the situation worse.

Mental problems

Obese people feel that they don’t belong properly. In sports they are slower than others, some exercises they cannot even do. Hiking days become torture for them, which is why many avoid them.

Children in particular also suffer from teasing from their schoolmates. This can mean that they no longer dare to go outside in their free time. You would prefer to sit in front of the PC or watch TV. Overweight people often withdraw from social life and increasingly lonely.
Most overweight people are ashamed of not having their eating bouts under control. You feel powerless and depressed. Some people hardly get out of bed in the morning because they don’t feel like getting up. When nothing is more fun, it is called depression.

In addition to depressive moods, anxiety disorders and addictive behavior can occur. The overweight person then tries to distract themselves from their desire to eat by drinking alcohol or smoking more. This usually gets out of control and exacerbates the situation.

Ways out of the crisis: therapy for overweight people

The hardest step is deciding to change something. If you’ve made it to this point, a lot of positive things have happened. Because overcoming the inner bastard prevents many from taking their lives into their own hands. We would like to show you which steps are necessary to get back to normal weight permanently.

Healthy weight loss

In order to go through life healthier again, those affected have to lose weight. There’s no way around it. However, one should not try to exercise to death. Well-known TV shows show us that a lot of sport and less food can work wonders within a few weeks. However, this extreme “weight loss course” does more harm than good. The reality is different from what television wants to pretend to be. Most people cannot get through a cure based on the principle of "all or nothing" because the pressure to perform is too great.

The slow weight loss in combination with a sustainable change in eating habits is far more healthy and promising. Sustainable means that the new behavior can be maintained in the long term in order to lead a healthy life into old age.

Visit to the Doctor

You can get information about local self-help groups from your family doctor. He can provide information about which sports are suitable and which should be left out. Obese people need this consultation with the doctor because they have to put a lot more strain on their bodies when doing sports than normal-weight people. In addition, the doctor will perform regular blood tests to monitor changes in the body.

The doctor may prescribe further examinations such as EKGs (examination of the heartbeat) or appointments with the orthopedic surgeon. The orthopedist is an expert in the field of bones, joints and the spine. He checks his patient for the condition of his bones and can also give recommendations on the most suitable sports.

Lifestyle changes and psychotherapy

Obese people not only need a healthy weight loss program and medical support, but accompanying psychotherapy.

It is usually sufficient to have a doctor prescribe some psychotherapy appointments. You then meet with the therapist and first explain how the unhealthy eating behavior came about. It is important for the therapist to know why you only feel good when you eat. What problems have you had in your own life so far? What strokes of fate? What can the patient do well, but what scares him? These questions and more can be clarified in a trusting conversation. Most of the time, you learn new things about yourself while talking about something in therapy. Then relationships become clearer and you develop an understanding of your own behavior. That makes it easier not to be ashamed of yourself. Because all behaviors, no matter how bad, have a reason that is deeply hidden within us.

If the health or psychological condition make it necessary, inpatient therapy may be necessary. This means that you stay in a clinic for a few weeks to improve your health and mental state. Sometimes depression medication has to be prescribed or eating behavior observed.

Relapses or discontinuations of therapy are not uncommon. Because one or the other obstacle on the way back to health may seem insurmountable. Many react to this with fear and evasive behavior.

In such situations, it is important to receive the best possible support from your own family. Parents or legal guardians must work well with the therapist and be able to implement their advice at home. In addition, you should treat your child with understanding when the child is about to give up. A few sensitive words paired with demanding discipline help the affected child to stay on the right track.

Incidentally, the cost of therapy is usually covered in this case, since eating disorders and obesity pose a serious health risk. More details can be clarified with the treating doctor or directly with the health insurance company.

Worksheet on the text

1) Explain the difficult words from the text.
Which does ______________ mean…

2) Why do people become obese? What are the circumstances??

3) Write down what you are against obesity can do. What type of therapy makes sense?

4) Research task: Use the class PC for this. Find out how many calories a child your age should be consuming every day. Search for the following words using a child search engine and make notes based on the pages found:

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Christina Cherry
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