Help for your overweight child: Tips for concerned parents

AS a concerned parent, you can help quicken your overweight child's weight loss by noting the following simple rules:

Exercise more

When a child walks, runs, or lifts weights, he or she increases the energy required of their body, which raises their metabolism then, and for hours afterward.

"It's not a huge spike, but it makes a difference," says Gary Miller, PhD, associate professor of health and exercise science at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Work out with weights

During weight training, muscle tissue is stressed; afterwards, it's repaired - which raises metabolism.

A girl who strength trains three times a week for six months can build enough muscle to burn 10 to 32 extra calories a day, according to Robert Wolfe, PhD, professor of geriatrics at the University of Arkansas. Some parents fear that their daughters would "bulk up" with weight training.

Personal fitness trainer Kelli Calabrese MS, CSCS, ACE, author of Feminine, Fit and Firm, says not to worry. "Women don't have the hormones necessary to develop those huge muscles, so you can feel good about doing weight training," she says.

Practice portion control

This helps to ensure your child does not overload his metabolism with a surplus of unusable energy (ie food).

Use a simple food scale like measuring cups to identify adequate portions. Another way is to use your hand as a guide:

A fist = a serving of fruit

A cupped handful = a serving of cereal

Two cupped handfuls = a serving of leafy green vegetables

An open palm = a serving of meat

Eat smaller meals more often

Some experts recommend eating smaller meals throughout the day, known as grazing.

"Grazing helps normalize blood sugar levels rather than producing three large spikes, which is what happens eating three meals a day," says Nick Flynn, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas.

For children, the issue may not be so much about eating many meals which they are probably pre-disposed to do anyway in the context of a normal child's active lifestyle.

Rather, a concerned parent should look out for correct meal sizes and that their child is partaking of the right food types. Be diligently conscious of the amount of calories required for different activities, and appreciate the correct calorie intake your child requires. For help with this, visit the Health Promotion Board's online nutrition FAQs.

Laugh it off

When researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, put people into a "metabolic chamber" (a small room that measures heat output in order to calculate a person's metabolic rate) and showed them funny videos, the subjects' metabolic rates rose by 10 to 40 calories.

"It's a small increase, but every calorie counts for those seeking weight loss," says lead researcher Maciej Buchowksi, PhD.

So, it does appear that weight loss is indeed a laughing matter .