Weight Loss: A Family Affair

Losing weight as a couple—it’s good for each of you, and if you’re parents, it can be very good for the kids, too. Two-thirds of adult North Americans are overweight or obese, and the weight statistics for American children are not far behind. Over 9 million children over the age of six are the adult equivalent of obese.
And according to the most recent health and nutrition survey, the past thirty years have wit- nessed a dramatic upward trend in children’s weight.
The number of overweight children between the ages of two and five has more than doubled; for children between the ages of six and nineteen the num- ber has tripled. Researchers estimate that about 30 percent of children weigh more than they should. Those facts are particularly alarming because research has clearly shown that the likelihood of an over- weight child becoming an obese adult is very high.