Fighting Fat in Your Kids

Tips on How to Motivate Your Kids to Exercise and Lose Weight

From http://msnbc.com/news/TODAY_front.asp
Keith Zucker and Stephanie Burton of Camp Kingsmont talk talk to “Today” host Katie Couric about exercise for overweight kids.

January 29, 2003 —  In part three of a special series on “Today” about kids and obesity we look at exercise. Too many children today are getting get too little of it. Keith Zucker is the owner and director of Camp Kingsmont in West Stockbridge, Massachussetts, Stephanie Burton is one of the camp’s certified pediatric exercise counselors and they share a look at some fun ways to motivate kids to exercise on “Today.”

How to Motivate Kids: Tips from Keith Zucker
You need to take the emphasis off of exercise and working out and focus on fun. The key is to find something they like to do and turn it into a fun way to get some exercise. For example: If a child enjoys drawing, talk about making a drawing of something you can find on a walk. Tell them you want them to draw a house. Then go for a walk together and find a house to draw. Don’t tell the child they’re exercising, the project is drawing the house.

Leading by Example:
There is nothing kids enjoy more than just hanging out with their parents. So get involved with your kids. Do things with them and make them enjoyable. If you lead by example, your child will think, now I have a partner, somebody to do stuff with me. Remember, these are kids who are chosen last to be on teams, who aren’t usually part of sports groups, so they will enjoy having someone to play with.

Don’t Focus on Weight Loss:
Again, don’t tell your child they are exercising to lose weight. But you can talk about the health aspect, that it’s important to exercise to lose weight. Talk it over with your child and let them come up with ideas on how to have fun and move around.

Results Take Time:
It took time to put on the weight, it’s going to take time to take it off. Dont weigh in every day. It takes times to change habits — about three weeks to really change a habit. So don’t put pressure on kids for quick results, it will only discourage them.

Camps for Kids: When is it time to consider sending your child to a weight management camp?
Parents should send kids to camp when they feel they don’t have the time or tools to help them. Not having the time to invest in helping kids change habits should be the main reason. So you send them to camp and they learn new habits and changes in lifestyle, and when they come home, they should be able to teach the parent.
How to pick a camp:
Be weary of camps that guarantee a certain weight loss. They don’t know your child and they don’t know how they will lose weight. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Quick fixes don’t work, and if they happen, usually depend on putting kids on really low calorie diets, which are unhealthy. Look for camps that talk about changing habits from the inside out and don’t make unrealistic promises. Camp should be looked at as a headstart, or jumpstart for parents. Kids should leave camp with more confidence and a basic knowledge about nutrition and exercise.

Exercises for Kids: Tips from certified pediatric exercise counselor Stephanie Burton
Some of these exercises may seem very basic, and overly simple. The thing to keep in mind, is that some of these children get such little exercise, and barely move around, that even the simplest of exercises are often new, and can be challenging. They may seem to be for younger kids, but older kids can have fun with them as well.
These are exercises that can be done at home. There are many families that have genuine safety concerns and can’t let their kids play outside. The weather is another reason to do these inside, and finally, since kids spend so much time in front of the TV, these are exercises that can be started during commercials. If you get kids to start doing these for three minutes at a time, (commercial breaks) five times in one hour, you get 15 minutes of exercise. The idea is that kids will become interested, and want to do these more and more, even without the TV on.

Concerns:
 * Stay away from weight bearing exercises. The joints of these kids are supporting a lot of excess weight, which already puts stress on them. Weight bearing exercises only aggravate joint and bone problems.
 * Balance: It’s much harder for these kids to maintain balance. If they fall over, it’s a lot more weight falling, so it can cause more serious injury. Always make sure they are firmly planted to the ground.
 * Overheating: Kids don’t usually push themselves as hard as adults, or overdo it. But kids can be pushed by adults. Keep an eye on them to make sure they aren’t overheating themselves. It’s easy to see, they become flushed and have rapid breathing.

The Exercises:
The most important thing is to make these fun and get kids interested in exercising.
Stretches:
As with any exercise, you need to begin with stretches:
 * Stand up and stretch arms up, touch toes, then crouch down.
 * Jump up, then go back down to crouch. Stand up.
Stability balls:
Props: balls with handles
Almost all kids enjoy doing these.
 * Bounce around on balls. This is low impact, but loads of fun. Kids hold on to the handles and bounce.
 * Superman/superwoman: Lay with stomach on the ball and use arms on ground to walk back and forth. This uses core body muscles.
 * Abdominals: The ball is good to work abdominals as well. You can do crunches on it.
Body bars:
Props: Body bars that weight between 6-8lbs
If you don’t have a bar, use a broomstick. The bar needs to be really light.
Hamstring curl: This is good for balance and hand-eye coordination..
Bicep curls: This is good to get blood moving in the body. Stand on both feet holding bar and do bicep curls.
Cardiovascular:
Props: Hula Hoops and jump rope
There are all sorts of activities that are fun for kids and get them moving:
Jump rope, hoola hoops, basketball. Anything that you find they like to do, you should make time to do with them.

Keith Zucker is the owner and director of Camp Kingsmont in West Stockbridge, Massachussetts and Stephanie Burton is one of the camp’s certified pediatric exercise counselors. Learn more about the camp at their Web site: www.campkingsmont.com