Exercise, New Eating Habits Highlight Fitness Formula

Rebecca Smith, a registered dietitian at Childrens Hospital of Orange County and a certified fitness instructor, offers the following weight-reduction tips for children and adolescents:

Nutrition

* Eat on a regular schedule. That means eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, with an after-school snack in most instances. And, Smith advises, “don’t skip meals. Usually what happens if they skip a meal, they tend to snack before the next meal or overeat at the next meal.”

* Have one appropriate serving for their age and don’t go back for seconds.

* Stop eating when you’re full. “Don’t eat because it tastes good.”

* Don’t eat in front of the TV “because, No. 1, the television is always telling you to eat and, No. 2, the television distracts you to the point where a lot of people don’t know what they’re eating or how much. Also, for some people it’s a conditioned habit: When they sit down in front of the TV they have to have something to eat.”

* Don’t make excuses to overeat because it’s a special occasion or you’re eating out. “There’s always going to be a special occasion or holiday coming up, and you have to learn to work with those,” she says.

* Learn to speak up and refuse food. “Just because food is offered doesn’t mean they have to take it,” she says.

Exercise

Smith says the problem with a lot of overweight children is not that they are overeating, “they’re just not moving.”

* Because extremely overweight children have a lot of stress on their legs, knees, ankles and hip joints, Smith recommends non-weight-bearing exercises such as swimming or bike riding.

* If the child is not grossly overweight, “we can start out with fast walking or any aerobic exercise the child enjoys like cycling, Jazzercize and soccer.”

* Exercise duration depends on the child’s exercise tolerance, but Smith recommends exercising at least five times a week, 15 to 30 minutes per session.

* Older adolescents can stick to an exercise regimen on their own, but children 13 or younger can’t be expected to do it unsupervised. She recommends that parents exercise with their children or put them in a supervised program.

* Smith stresses the importance of family support for a child who is trying to control weight: “It’s the family changing their eating and exercise habits along with the child for it to be successful.”

As with adults, there is no magic formula for adolescents who want to lose weight and keep it off.

“All it is,” Smith says, “is practicing healthy eating and exercise habits.”