Weight Loss for Family Bonding

Posted: Sep 03 in Weight Loss Blog by Staff

Obesity is a chronic disease, but it is not a genetic disease. This means that while obesity is something that will impact a person’s health for an extended period of time, and put an individual at risk for a collection of other chronic illnesses, it isn’t something that anyone is born with. However, there is a growing collection of research that shows that obesity is something that many children are born into, much in the same way that children are born into an economic class or religion. What this means is that the environmental factors at play in a child’s home is one of the biggest predictors as to whether a child will deal with obesity later on in life.

If a child is obese at the age of 6, they are 50% more likely to be obese as an adult than would a child of a healthy weight level. This finding comes out of a body of research from the Oxford University Press. Furthermore, a child’s risk of becoming obese goes from 24% (the national average) to 62% by merit of the fact that just one parent in the household was obese. What’s more, many parents who struggle with obesity themselves fail to realize that their child is overweight.

So what does this mean for the parent? As someone who is considering weight loss surgery in Fort Myers, this should come as an opportunity for action. While you are focusing on your own weight loss efforts, it can do your entire household a world of help to bring those healthy habits home and to focus on getting healthy as a family.

Get Active Together, Lose Weight Together

As a parent, you are the most powerful role model for establishing good exercise habits in your children. They look up to you, admire you and want to do what you do. If you exercise or participate in physical activities, your kids are more likely to join in, too. To make it fun for the whole family, there are many different kinds of activities you can enjoy together.

• Plan an outing where you can go hiking, biking or swimming.
• Investigate your local parks and recreation department to learn about different lessons, clubs or sports leagues in which the family can partake.
• Sign up for a Fun Run/Walk held in your city.
• Play hide and seek or tag in the backyard or at a nearby park.
• Have a hula hoop or jump rope contest.
• Put on a parade in your neighborhood.
• Go on a scavenger hunt to find different items such as flowers, leaves, animals, rocks, etc.
• Play catch or kick a ball to one another.
• Have a neighborhood car or dog wash.

If you can make the idea of physical activity fun, your family will be more willing to participate. Not only will you and your family become more physically fit—you will have the added bonus of spending quality time together, too.