The rate of children becoming obese or even overweight is increasing every year and it's extremely difficult to solve this problem. Who exactly is to blame, is it the school, parents, friends, or the children themselves? It's safe to say that there are an abundance of factors that influence a child's diet – including the quantity they eat as well as the different types of food that they eat.

As a parent it can be very easy to become worried for your child's future health and well being and this might cause you to take more drastic measures. For example you might be thinking about harsh punishment for the child if they disobey the nutritional plan. This rarely has to be the case as there are many tips and tricks you can implement in order to put your child on the right track and have them eating healthy and nutritious foods in no time at all!

Basic Tips on Obesity

As a parent, the first step you will want to take is ensure that there is enough healthy food in the house for your child to eat, you will also want to limit the amount of snacks and unhealthy food that is present. Eventually you will want to eliminate these foods from your child's diet completely, but at first it's best to taper down and get the child used to eating different types of food.

In addition to that, you will also want to keep a food journal for your child. In here you can track when your child eats, what your child eats, and lastly how much they eat. These three factors play a very important role in your child's weight and so you should definitely be keeping track of them. The food journal is so beneficial simply because it allows you to see exactly where you and your child are going wrong, perhaps your child is consuming too much food before bed, or having more unhealthy foods than you thought.

You should also try to incorporate some exercise into your child's lifestyle, a good way to do this is by setting an example by exercising yourself! Signing up to a gym is good but what's even better – if you have the finances – is creating a home gym because this will be much better for your child. You don't have to go anywhere near a gym however and it would probably be best if you got your child involved in sports; football, baseball, tennis, soccer, wrestling etc. these are all great sports that your child could be involved in.

How Children Can Maintain Their Weight

Once your child has reached a healthy weight their next step would be to maintain it, after all what's the point of going through so much hard work and dedicating so much time to getting into shape if you only gain the weight back after a few weeks.

To make sure that your child maintains a healthy weight you will want to measure the amount of food that they eat – in other words, they're daily caloric intake. Compare this with their basal metabolic rate (BMR) and the numbers should be quite close. If the child's daily caloric intake is above the BMR then you will want to restrict the amount of food that the child eats. Similarly if it's below you will want to increase the food intake.

Advice for Parents

One of the best things a parent could do for their child if they want to help the child get fit and in shape is to simply set an example. If you are only buying snacks and unhealthy food then your child is almost destined for a life of unhealthy eating as a strong habit will develop. Since they look up to you they'll also assume that there is nothing wrong with eating unhealthy foods – but there is.

Let your child know that eating healthy foods and keeping a good lifestyle is very important and will result in a much better quality of life. Playing sports and eating nutritious foods high in protein will have many benefits besides just looking good.

So to conclude this article, the best way for your child to get fit and healthy is to monitor their food intake and look for anomalies in their diet, we often don't take much consideration into our diet and so having everything tracked can really be an eye-opener. You should also get your child involved in sports or an active hobby and ensure that they stick to it.

Reference : http://www.thinreport.com/