A new study from the University of Copenhagen's OPUS Research Centre reports that being overweight makes children less active. The findings underscore that parents of overweight children have an obligation to keep their children active, as physical activity is vital for the general health of all children. The study also shows that slender children do not become overweight due to a lack of activity.
Over time, children with a higher fat mass reduce their level of physical activity and increasingly pursue sedentary activities such as watching TV or computer gaming.
Conversely, low levels of physical activity or too much time in front of the TV or computer do not cause normal-weighted children to put on weight.
The findings stem from a large study that has just been published in the esteemed journal, the 'International Journey of Obesity'.
New knowledge about the linkage between physical activity and overweight children
The study presents an entirely new body of knowledge about the links between physical activity and being overweight because it investigates developments among test participants over time.
In contrast, most other studies have measured activity at a single point in time, making it impossible to establish whether activity levels affect being overweight, or whether being overweight influences the level of activity:
"The defining characteristic of our work is that we have left a period of six months in between our measurements of activity and weight. Thus, we have been able to investigate how an overweight child's level of activity develops over a half-year," says Mads Fiil Hjorth, a researcher of physical activity, sleep and obesity at the University of Copenhagen's OPUS Research Centre.
Mads Fiil Hjorth emphasises that physical activity is of great value to children. "Even though our study, in part, shows that a lack of physical activity and lots of TV and computer do not cause children to gain weight, physical activity is obviously very good for children's general health and welfare in a number of other ways. We have not focused on these areas in this study. Instead, we have specifically focused on the link between physical activity and fat mass."