Posted on 06/25/2010 3:15:06 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Americans with children aged 18 years or younger are less likely to exercise and more likely to be overweight or obese, according to a new report.
The findings are based on more than 59,000 interviews with Americans, aged 18 to 50, from January to June 2010, conducted as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
Participants were asked "In the last seven days, on how many days did you exercise for 30 or more minutes?"
The impact on exercise was most pronounced for those with very young kids, aged 0 to 4. About 28 percent of parents in this group said that they exercised for 30 minutes a day "no days per week," compared with about 25 percent of those with no children. Although these differences are small, they are still significant, the researchers say.
Parents with a child 18 years old or younger were also less likely to report exercising five days a week.
Parents of 5- to 18-year-olds suffer the most when it comes to obesity. About 26.5 percent of parents in this group had a body mass index (BMI) that put them in the obese category, and 35.8 percent fell into the overweight category. For those with no children under the age of 18, 24.3 percent were obese and 32.2 percent were overweight.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
What a stupid misleading headline (and study). How about blaming yourself - the kid didn’t cram another Ho-Ho down your throat.
Believe me, it doesn’t take Ho-Hos, when you hit your 40s, you don’t have to eat a heck of a lot to gain weight, if you don’t exercise.
It’s because we were brought up to “eat everything on your plate” and as a parent you can’t see throwing out what the kids don’t eat. So you eat it. Hence, you become fat!
I exercise quite a bit—an hour-long run/hike/walk with my dogs in the morning, another shorter walk at night, some gardening, lifting, and swimming in the summer, plus a couple of hours of riding and caring for my horse each night (and if you don’t think that riding is exercise, let me invite you to try to survive my Thoroughbred). I am slender and very fit. But I agree it’s very difficult when you have small children.
You try to go swimming, but you can’t leave the kids unsupervised while you do laps, so your sole exercise consists of guarding them while they splash around. You want to go for a run, but this one needs to be breast-fed and that one can’t go in the stroller because it’s time for his nap, and when you get those two stashed the third one has a temperature or allergies or something. It’s ALWAYS something with little kids. It’s tough, and costly, to find someone competent and reliable to watch them if you want to leave the house and go running. You get so exhausted just from running around after them, teaching them, cleaning up after them, changing their diapers, taking them to the pediatrician, etc., that you’re often too whipped to exercise. All you can think about is, “Please, God, let me sleep.”
In addition, I’ll tell you that the hormones of pregnancy and lactation make you desperately hungry. No, the kids didn’t stuff the ho-ho in your face, but they might as well have. You will also hold onto quite a bit of fluid while lactating.
My goodness, what horribly exhausting days those were, when my children were small. I loved every minute of it, but I was truly flat on my face.
We had 5 kids in 9 years-—believe me when I say that I got lots of exercise! By the time I finished cooking for the family, I was sick of looking at food, and never ate all that much. I still weigh barely over 100 pounds.
I think a lot of obesity is due to the genes you inherit. Of course some folks do overeat and don’t move around as much, but I do think that genes play a large part.
Dr. Laura has the best diet around: EAT LESS, MOVE MORE!
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