15 - Baby Fat: Why Must It Be Lost Immediately

Hello, welcome to the "Scientific Weight Loss Course." I am Jessica.

After discussing so many adult weight loss issues, there's still one

important topic we haven't addressed - adolescent obesity. This problem

has worried countless parents, and we need to discuss it thoroughly.

There's a saying: "Parents who love their children plan far ahead for

them," meaning parents should make long-term considerations for their

children. But you might not know that regarding your child's weight,

your misunderstandings and neglect could ruin your child's entire life.

How to Determine If Your Child Is Overweight?

Before specifically discussing the harm obesity causes to children, we

need to clarify one question first: How do we determine if our child is

overweight? Some little chubby ones are obviously too fat at first

glance, but what about children who aren't that fat - do they count as

what we call fat?

Actually, similar to adults, there are standards for measuring whether

a child is obese. The World Health Organization (WHO) also uses BMI

calculations to determine if a child's weight is normal. However, it's

slightly more complex - the calculated BMI needs to be compared with

children of the same gender and age.

> After calculating your child's BMI, refer to the chart—

> Between the two yellow lines is normal weight,

> Above the 85th yellow line is overweight,

> Above the 97th red line is obese.

Is It a Problem If Children Are a Bit Fat?

Having clarified which children are considered obese, we can now return

to the question mentioned at the beginning. Why do we say obesity will

ruin a child's life? Is it really that serious if children are a bit

fat?

Yes, it really is. We can see what happens when children are too fat.

Apart from not looking good and being less agile, let's discuss three

profound impacts—

First, stunted growth.

Excessive increase in fat cells causes endocrine disorders, leading to

premature development in children and early closure of growth plates.

After growth plates close, children can no longer grow taller. So, if

you want your child to grow tall, don't let them get fat.

Second, fat for life.

Surveys show that obese children have a 42%-63% probability of

remaining obese as adults; obese adolescents have an even higher

probability of 70%-80% of remaining obese as adults. Note that this

prediction of childhood overweight on future obesity occurs during

fetal, infant, childhood, and adolescent periods. That is, it spans all

life stages of a child from the womb to 18 years old. To put it more

bluntly, as long as someone is fat before age 18, they'll likely

continue to be fat for the rest of their life.

There's no such thing as "adolescent fat" or "baby fat." Being fat as

a child isn't what many people think is just growing - it will mostly

become real fat.

This seems like a difficult problem to understand. Why does being fat

as a child lead to lifelong fatness? The fundamental reason lies in fat

cells.

Throughout our long lives, fat cells have only one growth and

development period - before adulthood. From infancy, fat cells begin to

multiply rapidly; by adolescence, their number reaches its peak. From

then on, the number of fat cells never changes again. Yes, after

adulthood, the number of fat cells is fixed - they won't increase or

decrease. Whether someone gains or loses weight, what changes isn't the

number of fat cells, but their size.

So you can imagine, if a child has excessive nutrition when young,

having more fat cells than others, they'll naturally be more prone to

gaining weight than others when they grow up.

Besides having a fixed growth period, fat cells actually have "memory."

If a person receives nutritional stimulation before adulthood - that

is, during the fat cell growth and development stage - such as

prolonged hunger, frequently eating until very full, or consuming very

high-energy foods in short periods, whether from malnutrition or

overnutrition, after receiving any such stimulation, the body will send

signals for excessive growth to fat cells.

Magically, fat cells will "remember" this signal for a long time, and

throughout the rest of their life, they'll be more inclined to store

energy and grow desperately. Such people become prone to weight gain,

more easily gaining weight than others.

What we've discussed above are physical problems, but the third

impact of obesity, also the most hidden harm, is affecting children's

mental health.

School health surveys tell us that obese children are more likely to be

teased and bullied, making them appear unsociable. Parents often don't

connect their child's weight with their withdrawn behavior, always

complaining that the child isn't proactive enough or doesn't socialize

with others, which further aggravates the child's psychological damage.

Children suffering such psychological damage can only find comfort in

favorite foods, further worsening their weight and entering a vicious

cycle of physical and psychological harm.

Do you understand? There's no baby fat or adolescent fat - when

children are fat, they're just fat. It's not only bad for now but also

for the future, bad for physical development, and even worse for

psychological development.

## How to Prevent Childhood Obesity?

How can we prevent problems before they occur and avoid children

becoming fat? I've summarized ten strategies for you—

First strategy: Get everyone in the family responsible for childcare

to listen to this lecture.

Unify the front and ensure everyone in the family knows the harm

obesity causes to children.

Second strategy: Manage your own weight before having children.

Research shows that when both parents are fat, the risk of their child

being fat is 4 times that of children whose parents both have normal

weight; if only the father is fat, it's 3.1 times; if only the mother

is fat, it's 2.7 times. Before pregnancy, you quit smoking and

drinking, abstain from various things - now add one more: reduce weight

to normal, especially for fathers.

Third strategy: Newborn weight shouldn't be at either extreme.

The normal range for newborn birth weight is 2.5 to 4 kilograms.

Medical research has found that whether birth weight is above 4

kilograms or below 2.5 kilograms, the probability of the child becoming

fat as an adult and developing obesity-related diseases significantly

increases.

Fourth strategy: Breastfeed for at least until the child is 1 year

old.

Since the 1990s, WHO has consistently recommended breastfeeding.

Compared to formula feeding, during breastfeeding, infants consume

relatively low energy, so they weigh less and grow at a more reasonable

rate. Even if sometimes children eat a lot, don't worry - breast milk

has its own regulatory mechanism. When children eat more, breast milk

production increases, but its energy density decreases, so the energy

children consume is roughly the same.

Most observational studies have found that school-age children who were

breastfed have a 15%-20% lower risk of obesity. Moreover, breastfeeding

is also associated with reduced risk of chronic diseases in adulthood,

meaning better health.

Fifth strategy: Set daily limits on fruit juices and beverages.

Most parents believe that the nutritional value of fruit juice equals

the fruit itself, or is even more easily absorbed. It's just fruit

juice, pure and natural with no additives - what's wrong with that? But

in fact, fruit juice is precisely a disaster area for childhood

obesity.

Let's do a simple math problem to understand the difference between

fruit juice and fruit - a 240ml cup of apple juice is about the same

amount as one apple, but requires 3 to 4 apples to make. A child can

drink such a cup of juice in less than 2 minutes, but asking them to

eat three or four large apples - they can't finish them, right? After

eating one, their little belly is already full. Moreover, each apple

contains about 3.75 grams of dietary fiber, which promotes intestinal

movement and even solves constipation problems.

According to American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations, children

aged 1-3 should drink at most 120ml of fruit juice daily, which is half

a cup; ages 4-6 should have 120-180ml daily; after age 6, they can have

up to 240ml daily, which is one cup.

Sixth strategy: Let children eat meals by themselves, and don't give

snacks even if they don't eat enough.

Eating by themselves helps cultivate children's concentration and lets

them better perceive whether they're full, rather than being eager to

play and accidentally eating too much. Note: never develop the

"grazing" eating habit of eating a little here and there. If children

are busy playing and don't eat enough at regular meals, don't give them

snacks. When they're hungry, they'll naturally eat well at the next

meal.

Seventh strategy: "Three parts hunger and cold" - dress them in one

less layer.

The human body actually has two types of fat tissue - white fat tissue

and brown fat tissue. Brown fat tissue is negatively correlated with

BMI. That is, the more brown fat tissue, the lower the weight. Moderate

cold promotes the growth of brown fat cells.

Eighth strategy: Let children cook with you.

From preparing ingredients to cooking to post-meal cleanup, through

participation, children can personally experience - what ingredients

are fresh and nutritious? What's the real taste of various dishes? How

should dishes be cooked to be both delicious and nutritionally

preserved...

Subtly, this influences children's taste preferences and food choices.

These dietary and lifestyle concepts established from childhood will

affect children throughout their lives.

Ninth strategy: Limit children's electronic device usage to no more

than 1 hour daily.

Children are naturally active. As long as you limit their phone and

tablet time, their exercise time will naturally increase significantly.

For adolescents, 20 minutes to one hour of moderate-intensity aerobic

exercise daily can not only prevent obesity but also help little chubby

ones lose weight.

Tenth strategy: Lights out for the whole family before 11 PM,

ensuring children get 10 hours of sleep.

Little babies aged 1-2 need 13-14 hours of sleep daily; ages 2-4 need

12 hours; ages 4-7 need about 11 hours; during school age and

adolescence, that is ages 7-15, they need 8-11 hours of sleep daily.

"Zhuangzi·The Way of Heaven" says: "What language values is meaning,

and meaning has something it follows. What meaning follows cannot be

transmitted through words." This means that teaching by example is

better than teaching through words. So, lead by example and develop

good regular sleep habits together with your children.

Key Points

There's no baby fat or adolescent fat - being fat as a child is really

being fat and requires timely weight loss.

How to prevent children from getting fat? Here are the five most

important suggestions:

1. Breastfeeding;

2. Set limits on fruit juices and beverages;

3. Let children eat meals by themselves, and don't give snacks even if

they don't eat enough;

4. Limit children's electronic device usage to no more than 1 hour

daily;

5. Lights out for the whole family before 11 PM, ensuring children get

10 hours of sleep.