We’re all aware of the massive problem of childhood obesity. However, kids aren’t quite aware of its magnitude, or at least how much they actually weigh.

In a study of mostly African American adolescents, nearly 40 percent were overweight or obese, and 27 percent of them underestimated their weight.

Of the 448 5th to 8th graders, more than 62 percent of the overweight boys and about 31 percent of the overweight girls listed their weight as normal or even underweight, reports Dr. Youfa Wang and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. That’s an interesting comparison. Since women are generally more conscious of their weight, it goes to show that girls aren’t as misguided about the number on the scale as their male counterparts.
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It’s tough being a cop. It may get a little tougher if the state of Ohio has its way. There’s a state rule that allows the dismissal of police officers who “consistently exceed weight limits.” Alaska and Massachusetts also have weight rules for their police force.

Six Ohio troopers were removed from duty in 2003, including one who was 71 pounds overweight.

While no officers have been fired in recent years, at least 11 have received verbal or written reprimands this year for weighing too much. Reportedly, one trooper was 48 pounds over his allowable weight, while another was 40 pounds overweight. So, apparently the protest is working, or nobody wants to enforce the rules.
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When we think of losing weight, it’s usually about immediate gratification. How I look now. How I feel now. But if you want real motivation to lose the excess weight, think about what it may be doing to your body in the long run.

A new study confirms what is a pretty logical assumption anyway. Obesity in early adulthood can lead to disabilities in your golden years. But the important thing to note is that, even if you lose weight, you may be at a higher risk of disability even if you lose weight. If you’re already overweight, don’t despair. You still stand to benefit from getting to a healthy weight. That’s because the longer you are overweight, the greater the risk of having mobility limitations later in life.
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When we think of smokers, most non-smokers think about the elementary fact that they are at a serious risk of premature death. And often, people scoff at the behavior as being careless, which usually begins in the impressionable teenage years. But research now shows that it’s not any more dangerous (or frivolous) for young adults to smoke than it is to be overweight.

Dr. Martin Neovius of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden and his colleagues stressed that since overweight and smoking are both associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease and certain cancers, that if young adults fall in either category, they are at risk of an early death. Although the pathogenic mechanisms differ, he said, a synergistic effect of smoking and obesity may be possible.

The researchers found that obesity and being overweight in late adolescence increased mortality risk, regardless of whether or not they also smoked.

Researchers concluded that “overweight, obesity, and smoking among adolescents might be good targets for intensified public health initiatives.”

(via: MedPage Today)

From BMIs to skin calipers, there are many different tools and calculations you can perform to measure your weight. But many of these numbers are just that – numbers that are averaged from hundreds of statistics on risk factors for illness and other health predictors. What about finding your ideal weight? The one that feels good for you and most importantly, that is realistic.

In a recent health article by Karly Randolph Pitman, she elucidated five tips for finding your healthy weight. The five tips are:

1) Recognize Your Own Body and its Own History. Self magazine features a healthy weight calculator that takes into account your age, height, children and activity level. As a caveat, I took this health assessment and if I weighed what the Self Happy Weight calculator suggested I could weigh, I would not be very happy. While Pitman’s other tips for finding your ideal weight are pretty spot-on, this Self Happy Weight Calculator could use some fine-tuning.
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