Childhood obesity

[Unopenedpackofmenssocks]

New report lists 9 areas of England where the majority of children will be overweight or obese by 2035.

It’s got me thinking about what causes childhood obesity. I have an 8 year-old who doesn’t like football, can’t ride a bike, never took to his scooter. spends a lot of time on a screen at home. Has does run about at school playtime and PE lessons and he likes climbing so goes to a class once a week for an hour.

He has an incredibly sweet tooth. I don’t allow unlimited desserts/sweets but I know for a fact we are much more liberal than many of his friends’ parents. The only things we are strict on are no fizzy drinks, Haribo type sweets maybe once a week, and no sugary cereal.

But he has something chocolate after every dinner and also when he gets in from school. Breakfast is a toasted fruit tea cake dripping in butter. He steals honey and Nutella from the cupboard when he thinks we aren’t looking.

We drive to school. We don’t go on family walks and our favourite joint family activity is watching Saturday night TV together. Our garden only has a small patch of lawn 2mx 4m and he has no siblings so doesn’t naturally run about playing at home.

He eats limited vegetables and his favourite foods are nuggets and pizza. He eats pasta with tomato sauce and cheese every single day at school lunch, won’t touch anything else. He has never eaten large portions though. We have no issue with McDonalds/fast food in general but he’s not a huge fan, maybe eat it once a month. Subway usually.

He is very slim and his teeth have no decay (was last at dentist 2 weeks ago).

My husband and I are both overweight BMI, on the brink of obese, but we were both naturally slim as kids too. I imagine it will catch up with our son when he is an adult, or maybe even sooner. (We all need to make changes and will work on that).

What we most definitely are is financially and socially privileged.

My question is this - these areas where obesity is running rampant are low-income and socially deprived. So what are the other factors caused by social/economic deprivation that mean these kids are obese but mine is not? Or are we literally just a very lucky exception?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/23/majority-children-overweight-obese-nine-areas-england-by-2035-study?CMP=ShareiOSAppOther

It's hard to eat healthily on a budget. For example 20% fat beef mince is so much cheaper than the 5% fat one. Carbs are a cheap way to fill you up but they make you feel sluggish. I know a family where the dc are always eating sweets and staring at their phones but they aren't overweight (although they have loads of fillings) because they eat good quality meat, more protein than carbs and do expensive sports.

I don't know OP, following to see any suggestions.. I see kids at the school gates that dive straight in to packs of sweets, sausage rolls and Nutella sandwiches and they're slim. My own DC gets a banana if lucky and is overweight, always has been even though as a baby it was 90th centile or whatever.

I read the why we eat too much book and if I remember it placed quite an emphasis on genetics but everywhere else just says diet & exercise. Objectively I think our diet is good and DC rarely sits still but it doesn't seem to matter.

One thing we’ve always naturally done as a family is eat wholemeal/seeded bread instead of white but still sliced mass-produced packet stuff not artisan bakery loaves. I buy 20% mince quite a lot though, better flavour.

You could be making changes. You are the parent and the one facilitating this.

Stop buying so much rubbish
Hw doesn’t need chocolate before and after dinner
Change everyone’s diets with better meals
Spend time outdoors after school and on the weekend.

It’s all down to you as a parent.

I don't know the answer OP but my own son 10yo eats well and is overweight, both myself and his dad were slim children and are slim now.

He eats all types of fruit/veg, eats wholemeal bread, 5% fat mince, chicken breast and sausages once a week, we have a takeaway (usually McDonald's or chippy) once or twice a month, doesn't have sugary breakfast cereals or have after school snacks and only has pudding once a week, he has football training 3hrs per week and a match once a week as well as playing football in the garden after school and biking 2km to school and back.

The only thing I can think of that he does have that is unhealthy is the occasional 'prime' drink (once a month if that).

Why have you posted a strange sort of stealth boast about your skinny, but unhealthy child?!
You're wearing crap diet and pedantry lifestyle like it's a fucking badge of honour.
As you are financially and socially privileged, you have the werewithal to do better.

I live in one of the most poverty stricken boroughs in London where childhood obesity is at an all time high.

Apart from the massive over consumption of food, I think for most it's lack of constant exercise.

Whenever I've attended netball, football, rugby, gymnastics tournaments that involve 100s of kids from this borough, it's extremely rare to see any of them overweight.

Yet they're the same average borough kids, with the same average borough parents, on the same average borough incomes.

The kids would leave the tournaments and you'd still see them in the chicken shop or McDonald's, so it's not like they're on any kind of special sports related diets.

They just get way more exercise.

There were so many skinny kids who ate junk at my school. Until they hit puberty and the weight piled on.

Indeed. OP, why are you facilitating your child's awful eating habits?

You need to be making changes to his diet and lifestyle now and educating him and the whole family about better nutrition and the benefits of physical activity. At the moment, you’re in control of when he eats and how much of it, which will be largely what prevents him becoming overweight. In a few years’ time, you won’t be in control of either: and his penchant for nuggets and pizza and chocolate spread and sweet things whilst being sedentary will make him far more likely to become an overweight teenager and then young person.

One of the reasons childhood obesity is such a difficult topic is becuase it is so complex. It's not as simple as "eats too many sweets.". I have two children, both of whom were overweight in the pre-teen years.

DS - Brillaint eater from day 1. Has ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder. Got fat becuase he just frankly ate TOO MUCh. LOads and loads of healthy food, but in high quantities. Too many treats. No "off button" (thanks ADHD). Struggled with the right kind of exercise. DH has his own food issues and while he's actually slim and exercises a lot, he struggled to limit DS so got into habits of crisps AND chocolate every day after school.

Fixing it required shifting his diet to accomodate the sheer QUANTITY of food he needs to eat, and finding ways to incorporate more movement (vs exercise specifically) including allowing quite a lot of independence to be out and about from the age of about 10 plus joining sports groups with a heavier focus on actual fitness and stamina. He's nearly 6ft and very slim.

DD - never a good eater. Always fussy. Multiple intolerances, some of which we still haven't nailed down. Definitely too many treats and also not enough movement.
Fixing it: she's finally growing up without going out at the same time so she's slimming down overall. Intolerances are more in control so much less bloating which combined with a slowly increasing variety in her diet is helping her digestion which I think is stopping her from storing every calorie she eats. Does a lot more movement now mostly through multiple dance classes.

Er, you’ve totally missed the point of my post!
It was a question about social factors and obesity, not a request for advice.

Once again, not the point of the post!

As in my post, you’re currently watching what he eats and how much of it he eats, even if it is mostly shit he eats. Other parents will do less of that, and parents of teens have lost the ability. Those kids will be more likely to be overweight.

I realised I pressed send without saying what my point was,

Basically, it's complicated. In our case it was a combination of additional needs, intolerances, a father who was looking after the children a lot of the time and has his own food issues AND doesn't cook/care about food. Exacerbated by the fact that while I DO know about food, cook well, etc, I am also the main breadwinner, exhausted a lot of the time and I will admit, through sheer exhaustion would often let things slide when they were younger.

In others it's about not knowing what's good and healthy.

In others its' about no tbeing able to afford it.

In others, it's genetics.

In others, it's about quality of food.

And in many many many cases, it's some combination of these and other factors.

I live in a high obesity area. childhood obesity is a complex issue. Inactivity is a huge issue - children should be active for a minimum of 1 hour a day (across the week). Some of this will be lack of access to outdoor space be it garden or not feeling safe at their local park. Intergenerational inactivity is a huge issue and exercise is seen as something not for people like us.

Access to nutritious food either through lack of ability / confidence to cook, fuel poverty, maybe not having access to utensil’s, or even ovens. Lack of knowledge about healthy eating is also an issue.

Big change also going from primary to secondary, my kids walked to primary but bus to secondary. Plus food on offer is terrible, pizza, burgers etc. kids playing out and spending money on crap food. Might also drop out of activity - especially girls. Puberty has big impact too.

Different metabolisms.

You’re not asking for advice, but mine is to come back and update us when he’s 16.

There is a lot more to health than weight. Setting up healthy habits will help with mental health, immunity, blood sugars, stored fat etc.

one of my children tends to head towards slightly overweight very easily, when I’ve noticed I reduce the snacks, increase family walks and think about portion sizes. We try to make celebrations not linked to food.

I think obesity in certain demographics has a lot about cost per calorie and accessibility and knowledge about a healthy life.

It's hard because a lot of it is genetic I was skinny all the way up to 25/30 and I ate shit i actually eat significantly better now and a lot less then I did back then but am overweight. My whole family are the same males and females skinny until 25/30 then its like someone flicks a switch.

I think your son just has lucky genes. My best friend has never been to a gym in her life, survives on fast food, hates salads, but in the 30 years I have known her (since school) she has remained a size 6/8. She's now 41 and still could fit into the clothes she wore as a teen. She has very lucky genetics though as her mum and three sisters are equally petite.

Medical conditions aside, obese children are eating more calories than they burn. That's it really. Where they get them from, be it chocolate or avocado, or how they burn them is irrelevant to weight (though obviously not to health) so there isn't going to be a special middle class reason for your DS being slimmer than disadvantaged children with poor diets. He's just ar present eating roughly the calories he needs without storing excess as fat. This can change very quickly though.

It's not just sweets, it's limited nutritional literacy in general. Empty calories, high salt convenience foods etc. Parents making poor choices in what kind of food they introduce to their children - sometimes with very limited choice in the first place due to poverty. And I don't just mean financial poverty, I mean that parents are time poor as well. In a lot of households the mother doesn't cook all the time any more and fathers haven't picked up slack so they're all eating poorly.

I think people just like to point fingers at parents and leave it at that, and I think it's clear that more sedentary lifestyles and poor diet is a major factor. However it's also the case that there are other factors - eg childhood obesity has risen at the same time as children mental health problems have risen.

I also find school is a massive problem in trying to keep my daughter's diet fairly healthy - she doesn't take chocolate, sweets or crisps for her lunch and yet multiple times I've found crisp and sweet wrappers in her pockets from 'snack swapping'. Socially we have a massive focus on unhealthy food, especially linked to celebrations.

Basically I don't think it's one thing, I think it's a whirlwind of things centred around food and physical activity and the reasons for it are many and varied.

I live in a high obesity area. childhood obesity is a complex issue. Inactivity is a huge issue - children should be active for a minimum of 1 hour a day (across the week). Some of this will be lack of access to outdoor space be it garden or not feeling safe at their local park. Intergenerational inactivity is a huge issue and exercise is seen as something not for people like us.

This too. I am absolutely certain that lack of movement is a key issue. Exacerbated by the fact that so many parents these days are so terrified of letting their children out, that often they're at home sitting on screens way past the point at which they should be runnign around the neighbourhood. Families are either too busy to take their kids out/make them move a lot or there are socio-economic reasons or whatever. And it definitely knocks on.

An interesting fact - you only grow fat cells when you're a child or teen. As an adult you don't grow anymore fat cells (unless you're very obese in which case you start to grow more). And as an adult you can't lose your fat cells. The ones you have can only get larger or smaller (this is part what makes up your baseline weight)
So if you're a skinny child with very little body fat (think sporty, muscular builds) then they will never really be able to be obese as an adult, as they simply don't have the fat cells.

which is why if you're an overweight kid it's almost impossible to be a slim adult (or at least maintain a slim build)

I also find, again, school to be a massive issue with the lack of physical activity. My daughter's school is horrendous for this and I've raised it with the local authority. They get PE twice a week and it's not taken seriously at all - they don't do any kind of actual sport or exert themselves at all, and it's taken away from them at the drop of a hat. They used to do the daily mile, they no longer do. Sports day doesn't require any physical effort. Play time is one morning break and about half an hour at lunch in a concrete hellscape, with the one bit of green space on rotation every few weeks. The school was linked to a local authority community facility that has now been taken over by a different group that has banned the school kids using it massive green field. I know there are similar issues with other schools.

Luckily my daughter is quite active outside of school but the decrease in physical activity at primary school between when I was at school and now is stark. I think this lack of physical activity is also linked to poor behaviour in schools. In fact I think it's obvious.