Obesity isn’t just an adult problem; our youth in America are growing in the wrong direction too. I know this isn’t new news, but have you recently taken a look at the general public? I did and I was shocked at what I saw. This past weekend I was truly astonished and overwhelmed by what I witnessed at a major league baseball game and a high school football game. At the ballgame, I saw three-hundred-pound adults eating cotton candy, helmets filled with ice cream, hotdogs by the handful; drinking beer, and that was just the first two innings. Their 10-year-old children were tying with them bite-for-bite and they were very overweight too. Then, I took a look around the ballpark and to my dismay it was very common to see adults extremely overweight and their children looking the same. At the high school football game, I saw something that made me think that being morbidly obese was now acceptable. It was the high school’s homecoming game and at halftime they announced the homecoming court, and to my shock, three of the five young ladies walking onto the football field were obese and one was significantly overweight. Seeing this display very simply told me that our young adults and youth think that being overweight is all right.
To support my observation I have some data I think you need to be aware of: Approximately 30.3% of children (ages 6 to 11) are overweight and 15.3% are obese. For adolescents (ages 12 to 19), 30.4% are overweight and 15.5% are obese. Excess weight in childhood and adolescence has been found to predict overweight adults. Overweight children (ages 10 to 14) with at least one overweight or obese parent (BMI> 27.3 for women and > 27.8 for men in one study), were reported to have a 79% likelihood of being overweight persisting into adulthood. Overweight prevalence is higher in boys (32.7%) than girls (27.8%). In adolescents, overweight prevalence is about the same for females (30.2%) and males (30.5%). The prevalence of obesity quadrupled over 25 years among boys and girls, as shown in Figure 1.
So what do my observations and the above information have in relation to your business? The answer is EVERYTHING. This information tells your future and the future of our industry. If you take charge and create programs for educating our adults, young adults and youth about obesity and the serious health risks, then you will have made a gigantic step in securing your future. Then, if you create a series of training protocols and group programming for the obese and overweight you will have possibly secured the future of your business for decades.
Here is an idea that the TV show The Biggest Loser used at the end of the show, they loaded a weight vest with the weight that each participant had lost during the show. Then each participant put their weight vest on. This gave participants a new understanding and appreciation of weight and the weight they had lost. You could use this same idea in reverse, just load a weight vest with twenty pounds and have your trainers wear the vest for a day. This will change your trainers’ way of thinking and training, I guarantee it. Then, have your trainers begin the education process by interacting with those you identify as obese or overweight. Ask the member’s opinion of your current weight loss program, how they feel about the program and if the program appeals to them. This will give you a better understanding of your deficiencies and areas of needed improvement. Then, you will be armed with the pertinent information for your particular facility to begin the development of a weight loss/ obesity program.
In closing, the numbers do not lie. We have an epidemic in America and it is not going away with fad diets or designer weight-loss pills, the only way to enact change is to educate and promote a healthy lifestyle. And, isn’t that your job as a health and fitness professional?
George Morrison is the Developer of the Xvest and a Strength & Conditioning Coach. He can be contacted at 800.697.5658, or by email at gmorrison@thexvest.com .
