Many kids have noticeably gained weight

[Lazt]

We’re a few days back in school now and I’ve really noticed that many many kids have put on weight since March, quite a number are now noticeably overweight. We’re in a reasonably affluent area where I would’ve said pre lockdown the slightly overweight kids were very much in the minority.

I include my own kids in this who were pretty slim before are definitely chunkier but not overweight.

It’s just so shit. This is not a judgement on parents, just the terrible situation we’ve put our children in.

It’s been a tricky situation. I’m sure my eldest would’ve put weight on if she hadn’t been allowed to return a month into lockdown (walks to school and they did some non-contact PE stuff there). She was absolutely over the moon this week when she had her first dance class in months (a new one as she is autistic and couldn’t handle the thought of zoom classes - although only one of her dance clubs offered them anyway)

DS hasn’t suffered too badly as his martial arts and tap classes went to zoom quickly and he is very hyperactive anyway so just bounces a lot and was happy to go on walks.

I know it's been hard for many people to get exercise (we were fortunate to be able to), but tbh it's probably more about the lockdown eating habits than the exercise. When you look at how much exercise it takes to even work off the calories in a banana, it's not surprising that they say "You can't outrun a bad diet". It's the crisps, biscuits, ice creams and fizzy drinks doing the damage imo, much more than the temporary lack of football club etc.

I can't get our DD to put on weight. Typical day - breakfast - avocado and tomato on wholemeal toast with balsamic. Mid morning/school break - banana. Lunch - wholemeal sandwich with veggie meat, lettuce, onion, tomato, cheese and mayo, crisps. Before dinner - pancake. Dinner - pesto pasta/mash, broccoli and vegan meaty sausages/mash, mixed veg, veg garlic kiev/homemade burrito with guac, sour cream/tofu, veg bacon, veg sausages, homemade chips, mushrooms, beans etc. Then come 8pm she's starving. She'll eat anything vegetarian apart from chocolate.

I didn't really notice much weight gain on mine but they definitely were less fit. Ds15 was superfit before lockdown but months indoors really set him back.

@lazylinguist

I know it's been hard for many people to get exercise (we were fortunate to be able to), but tbh it's probably more about the lockdown eating habits than the exercise. When you look at how much exercise it takes to even work off the calories in a banana, it's not surprising that they say "You can't outrun a bad diet". It's the crisps, biscuits, ice creams and fizzy drinks doing the damage imo, much more than the temporary lack of football club etc.

I agree. My primary age children have lost weight if anything but they’ve stuck to three meals a day plus one snack (cracker/ oatcake/ fruit). It’s routine so they don’t ask for snacks at other times. At school they have pudding after lunch whereas at home they have fruit, and crisps are a treat reserved for picnics. They’ve been getting a decent amount of exercise because they like to run on our daily ‘walk’.

Whereas I’ve put weight on because although I’ve done more exercise than I usually do (running with them plus a couple of at home workouts daily) I’ve been eating more than usual once the children have gone to bed!

We literally didn't leave the flat for months and spent a large part of everyday sitting dow. That's got to have an effect.

Whereas I’ve put weight on because although I’ve done more exercise than I usually do (running with them plus a couple of at home workouts)

Snap. I've put on weight too, although I've been doing more exercise. My dc haven't, because although they have a sweet tooth, they eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full. I know exercise is brilliant in all kinds of ways, but it's not actually very effective as a weight loss method on its own. Even when I used to run quite a lot and was training for a half marathon, I didn't lose weight unless I really watched what I ate.

We literally didn't leave the flat for months and spent a large part of everyday sitting dow. That's got to have an effect.

An effect on your fitness, mental health and maybe muscle tone (depending on what level of exercise you're used to), but not necessarily that much of an effect on your weight. Maybe a little bit, but if combined with more food or less healthy food, then the latter is probably the main problem.

@lazylinguist I agree exercise doesn't do much for weight loss, but I think it's great for weight maintenance. So when DS was out playing rugby or going to the gym, it was possible for him to eat a bit of rubbish as he genuinely was burning it off.

But the double whammy of less exercise, plus nothing else to look forward to except mealtimes meant that weight wentbup.

@lazylinguist

We literally didn't leave the flat for months and spent a large part of everyday sitting dow. That's got to have an effect.

An effect on your fitness, mental health and maybe muscle tone (depending on what level of exercise you're used to), but not necessarily that much of an effect on your weight. Maybe a little bit, but if combined with more food or less healthy food, then the latter is probably the main problem.

It depends how much exercise they did before though I guess. Mine ate less than they normally do in lockdown, which meant that combined with the lack of exercise they stayed about the same. Had they eaten the same as normal with less exercise, they would have gained weight.

My son went from playing football for 7 hours a week plus PE, scouts etc to trying to exercise in the small garden or a walk around the park. The difference in his fitness level and size is noticeable.

It's still difficult. All the activities my school age DC did before are no longer on. They were not all physical activities but at least they walked there and back.

Yes, it was lack of fitness I noticed in my kids. They were getting out of breath quicker when walking uphill (after lockdown). Me too but I also put on weight! (We are in Italy and couldn't go out for exercise).

To go against the grain here, my ds's have become super lean and fit. They have completely cut out all junk in lockdown (literally not one biscuit consumed!) and have been really experimenting with healthy eating. And they've had home-cooked fresh food every day and set up a home gym (weights in the cellar!).

They are teens and say they will never go back to eating junk snacks like they did because they feel so much better.

Hamster, wise kids!

I live in a place where the play parks remain closed and schools are remaining remote for the foreseeable future and I want to cry. We have this issue too and the mental and physical health of our family is really struggling. I’m feeling a massive failure on the parenting front.

My dc was stick thin, but noticeably put on weight. It was inevitable since he went from 3, sometimes 4 days of sports activity a week to none. Though he is aware, stopped eating snacks in between meals and do try to exercise.
I'm not worried much though. He put on some weight, but still very slim, and he can drop it if he wants to once school starts.

They are teens and say they will never go back to eating junk snacks like they did because they feel so much better.

Wow - impressive! I wish mine would do that. They are slim, but they definitely coild do with eating more healthy stuff and a bit less sugar, for general health rather than weight.

I honestly have the least enthusiastic kids for exercise. We adults have nearly always initiated getting out and doing stuff.

So we really have relied on incidental exercise through walking to things, and a couple of organised clubs they would tolerate.

Rookiemere I thought they'd have opened up the outdoor football by now. That's shocking really.

My youngest has put so much weight on and every time I look at him I feel so guilty.

Both parents working full time shifts throughout lockdown, he went to school for 3 weeks (Y6), apart from that stayed in with his older brother and ate me out of house and home while unsupervised.

I'm hoping he'll lose it once at secondary and walking there and back everyday, more exercise and less time to graze on food.

Honestly though I'd never thought I'd let my child become overweight. I feel like a failure.

@CommonCarder they have apparently furloughed the leisure centre employees and as the official rules only allow 5 households to be outside together if you're over 12 in Scotland, it would be difficult to have a legal game.

My three have all put on a bit of weight over lock down. Eldest seems to have grown in height and slimmed down a bit over July/August, but the other two haven’t done this and are definitely chunkier, especially dd2. It’s partly my fault, they all love to bake and we did a lot of baking over lockdown to pass the time, so a baked snack in the afternoon and then maybe pudding after tea too. The only reason for baking was to pass the time, it was the only thing they would engage with some days, but it has left us all bigger than we were in March. A walk around our estate each day soon lost its appeal and everyone got tired of walking round the estate with no purpose (it doesn’t normally bother anyone to walk to school, but doing the same walk for no reason was so boring). I’m hoping that once they get back to school and I’m doing the school runs, it will drop off a bit.

But I do feel that children have lost their education and their health over the past 6 months (both physical and mental) and it Will take a long time to get that back for them.

Ah you'd need a twins five a side match.

What will pe at school look like I wonder.

Sorry but we haven't put on much weight at all. DD has eaten too much sugar via baking but far less sweets so balanced out. Have no idea why we haven't out on weight as both parents WFH and both kids exercising less. I didn't find we ate more and I put more time into cooking and it's healthier than before. DS has become fussier but he is autistic and lockdown has been great for him in many ways but he has more control over food and has stopped eating much fruit but he is still skinny.