How to Get Your Obese Child to Lose Weight

How to get your obese child to lose weight is the topic of news articles, political debates and school program planning nights all over this nation. In this age of obese children and obese adults with lethal health issues the topic is a priority in every venue that even remotely touches on children's issues. There are experts of every discipline that will happily tell you how to get your fat kid to lose weight. The advice runs from the sensible (more exercise, less fats and sugars) to the expensive (send them to a "fat farm").

I am here to tell you the one sure fire way to make it happen. Get involved in your child's life. Get your fat kid out on the lawn with you crawling around digging dandelions. Get a beach ball and just bump it down the sidewalk between you as you walk and talk. You know how, you bounce it two or three times and pass it to him or her. You cannot get your fat kid to lose weight if you just tell them to go exercise, or play, or go do anything. You have to get involved on a personal level.

The way to get your fat kid to do something is to invite him or her to join you in activities that bond you and keep you moving at the same time. Here are some of the best bonding activities I know.

Play ball at an age appropriate level, just casual tossing or real serious catch, either way you are moving and so is your kid. Soft soccer, played on a friendly conversational level with a beach ball removes the fear factor and encourages talking, laughing and movement.

Make and fly kites. There are many great kite designs that you and your child can embellish with the favorite hero of comic book or screen. For instructions on making a kite go to (http://www.ehow.com/how_1288_make-kite.html ). Time spent bonding with your child on a building project will bear fruit in the flying part of the activity and the reward will be two fold...You will be helping your fat kid lose weight and you will be building emotional ties that will last a lifetime.

Take your fat kid fishing, hiking, walking in the park or for a rambling tour of the nearest museum. But stay away from malls, fast food places, and pizza parlors.

Teach your kid the dances you grew up with. Exercise together to music or to a workout video. The key here is to make this fun, and a special bonding time between you and your child. You may want to find a line dancing class or a ballroom dancing class you can enroll in with your child.

A father I know plays active chase and wrestle through out the house with his kids; They race up stairs, dive under beds, scramble over the back of the living room couch and homerun slide under the kitchen table. Pillows are tossed or used to swat and pummel each other all to the sounds of shrieks of laughter and shouts of glee. Father and children end up tumbled in a heap of happy, sweaty, panting, delighted humanity on the living room carpet and there is not an ounce of extra fat on any of them. Mom, who is much more reserved, stands by and watches with a tolerant smile but is not actively involved in the play and she is well padded and plump. The lesson is obvious to me. They all eat at the same table so the exercise is the variable that makes the difference.

Invest in a Nintendo Wii and play the most active games on a regular basis. Teach by example and enthusiasm. Put your heart and soul into it and give cheers and victory dances with verve and good humor and your child will soon begin to join in the fun with you.

Knowing how to get your fat kid to lose weight is not just a matter of gently introducing more and more exercise into the daily life of the child. It is also a matter of introducing as much emotional stability and personal bonding as you can because the better the child's mental and emotional health, the better his or her physical health will be.

While you are working on the exercise and bonding part of the equation it is important not to forget the diet part of the equation. Clearly the ratio of energy units burned to energy units taken in will be how to get your fat kid to lose weight. A quotation in the October 2010 Woman's Day magazine tells us that 90% of the obese population could curb their weight increases by cutting just 100 calories a day from their diets. Make this a project for the two of you to work on together.

Here is how. First the child may be used to eating all the time so don't try to change that too much. Make six small meals a day the normal but be sure that the child and you share the experience. Making the kid eat salad while you eat greasy burgers and fries is insulting, alienating, and counterproductive. Better to share an apple and string cheese than to hurt the child's feelings which will drive them to more unhealthy eating. How do you do that? Well it really is pretty easy. Cut a crispy apple in half and remove the seeds. You take half and give your child half, you may split a string cheese stick or have one for you and one for the child depending on the child's age and needs.

No candy, no soft drinks, no fats but freely encourage healthy fruits and vegetables and small servings of lean meats.

I won't go on and on with the diet lecture because the best diet for you and your child is best discussed with your family doctor. I will flatly state that fad diets can quite frankly be dangerous and stupid. One good source of information can be accessed here http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/11747978 .

How to get your fat kid to lose weight should not be a big mystery. It is a matter of burn more energy units with exercise than is put into the mouth. The big key is the quality of the exercise experience. It has to be rewarding to be sustainable.