Contrary to the commonly accepted wisdom, exercise doesn’t prevent children from becoming obese, for a new study has revealed that they are actually programmed to be sporty or couch potatoes.In a recent study, researchers have found that physical activity daily has little or no effect on whether kids are fat or not, a finding which means the obesity epidemic among them is caused more by what they eat than lack of exercise.
In fact, according to the researchers, the amount of exercise a child does is not linked to their Body Mass Index (BMI), a calculation of their height and weight used to measure if they are a healthy weight or not.
Each child is programmed to a particular level of activity. No matter what you do, they will modify their activity to remain at their level, some will always do more and some will always do less. Some children do meet the physical activity guidelines and some don’t but BMI will not tell you which one’s do and which one’s don’t. But it is worth doing exercise because there is clearly a benefit in doing so, it is just that the BMI does not reflect that.
