It is fairly well established now that it is a person’s total number of fat cells which determine the ease or difficulty of maintaining a healthy body weight. It has also been demonstrated that this number is established early in life and is directly related to the child’s body weight. In practice this means that an overweight child is going to have many more fat cells for life than is a child of normal weight. As a consequence, overweight children are destined to have weight problems throughout their lives.

A recent study by Kathleen F. Janz and her colleagues reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Janz 2009) provided a possible means of preventing an excess of fat cells in children. They studied the same 333 children at ages 5, 8 and 11. Fat mass was measured and adjusted for the height/weight norms for each age group. Moderate to Physical Activity (MPVA) was measured by activity monitors which the children wore all day, for four days. The resulting graphs gave a visual index of each child’s activity over the four day period.

The results showed that the MPVA measure at five years was a good predictor of the child’s body mass at both age eight and at age eleven. More specifically boys and girls who registered the highest level of MPVA were also at lowest level for body mass at both the eight and eleven year age levels. These results strongly suggest the importance of moderate to vigorous activity for young children as a preventive measure against weight problems later in life.

These results give additional reasons for young children not spending too much time in front of the television eating junk food. Young children are basically very active and full of energy. They really need to be given the opportunity to run, jump, climb and play with other children. And it is also another reason why pushing an academic program into the kindergarten or eliminating recess in the schools makes no sense either from an academic or from a health perspective.

There are many ways in which we can insure that young children engage in regular vigorous to moderate physical activity. One of these is to enroll the child in a traditional, play oriented preschool which has a large outdoor play area. Taking a child regularly to a playground where slides and swings are available provides another opportunity for young children to engage in active physical activity. And if these options are not available, taking young children for walks on a daily basis can serve the same purpose. Making sure young children have an adequate amount of physical activity recognizes the fact that a healthy body is the best receptacle for a healthy mind.

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Fanz, K. F. e. a. (2009). "Sustained Effect of Early Physical Activity on Body Fat Mass in Older Children." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 37(1): 35-40.