Overweight Kids Lose Weight When Their Parents Do

It should be no surprise that overweight kids lose weight when their parents do. I have been writing and saying for years that weight loss must be a family affair. It simply does not work to tell your kid to eat healthy snacks like fruit while you are sneaking the Snickers bar or a spoonful of Ben & Jerry’s. In my Seattle weight loss and Bainbridge Island weight loss offices of Slender For Life™ I teach families hypnosis for weight loss. Even young children can easily learn self hypnosis.

Overweight Kids Lose Weight When Their Parents Do

Make Weight Loss A Family Affair

WebMD, April 6, 2012: Want to get your overweight child to lose weight, but don’t know how? Do the same thing yourself. This is the main finding from a new study of 80 overweight or obese children and their parents. When parents lost weight, their kids did, too. For each one unit decrease in the parent’s body mass index or BMI, children lost one quarter of a BMI unit.

Since 1970, the rate of childhood obesity in the U.S. has tripled. About 1 in 3 children in America are overweight or obese. As a result, obesity-related diseases and conditions normally only seen in adults are increasingly diagnosed in kids.

The average BMI of parents in the study was obese, but not all the parents in the study were overweight. The findings may have been even more dramatic if all the parents were overweight or obese.

Children look up to their parents. It is not fair to tell a child to lose weight if you don’t do it yourself. It has to be a team effort.

You must walk your own talk.

This study reaffirms the role of the parent and the fact that changes need to be made in the home environment to be sustainable.

Studies have shown that only targeting parents for weight loss has trickle-down effects on kids. The parents lose weight and the children do, too.

This makes perfect sense. Parents are the role models for the children; they buy the food for the household, and set activity levels. This is where the changes need to take place.

If the parents are overweight and not on board, these children won’t lose weight or make and maintain heart-healthy changes.

Read Overweight Kids Lose Weight When Their Parents Do

Obesity is preventable. It is unconscionable that children today have a shorter life expectancy than my generation – all due to obesity and its related diseases.  Seattle weight loss and Bainbridge Island weight loss clients learn self hypnosis so that they can be in control of their weight. Hypnosis for weight loss really can work for you and your family.

Check out Slender For Life™ and call (206) 903-1232 or email for your free consultation.

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