Is reduced fitness and weight gain in children becoming more common?

[BeAmberPanda]

I know this is a sensitive subject and I really don’t want to sound like I’m judging anyone, but I do feel a bit out of my depth with what I’m seeing in children now and wondered if others feel the same.
On holiday recently with DD and her best friend, both DH and my mum made a few comments (probably more out of concern than anything else) about how much less active children seem compared to when we were younger. The girls are lovely, but they really did spend most of the time around the pool sitting or lying down, snacking constantly, and getting quite out of breath with very little activity.
What stood out to me was just how much weight both of them seem to be carrying around their middles. When they were sitting on the loungers after lunch, their stomachs were quite rounded and visibly resting over the waistbands of their bikinis, especially when they slouched or leaned forward. They didn’t seem aware of it at all - constantly adjusting waistbands and carrying on chatting, which I suppose shows how normal it feels to them.
My mum did gently comment a couple of times that she worries children now don’t seem to be as fit as they used to be, and that was met with a bit of eye-rolling and “you’re just old, it’s normal now” type responses, which she found quite upsetting if I’m honest. I think she was trying to say it from a health point of view rather than appearance.
I suppose what’s worrying me most isn’t how they look, but how quickly they seem to get tired, how much they rely on snacks and drinks all day, and how little proper movement there seems to be without it being a bit of a struggle.
Maybe I’m just naïve, but I can’t help feeling a bit concerned that this is becoming the norm rather than the exception.

"Is reduced fitness and weight gain in children becoming more common?"

Sorry, is this a serious question?

Where have you been for the last 3 or 4 decades, that you've missed childhood obesity steadily rising?

My thoughts exactly @OhBumBags

You have t said the ages of any of the parties involved.

kind of important are the 5 10 15 20?

your dm is there with your daughter her best friend and your husband?

my experience- I’m teacher and have taught since 2004 and in the last 5 years I noticed that some children are so unfit that they cannot manage a short walk up a slight hill. I mean I’m a 46 year old woman who does no exercise and they are huffing ans puffing. They cannot walk around a zoo at a fast ish pace all day and cannot walk fast canstsnu dawdle.

this is a minority but really disturbin. some are super fit
some are in the middle

fitness and weight or size isn’t proportional. Although I think the idea of kids being mostly skinny is largely defunct and the number of obese children is increasing year on year and some are extemely obese.

I myself have been obese until I took Mounjaro and lost 5 stone and I was obese as a child but reasonable fit as walked to school which was 30 minutes each way. Unfortunately it was on the route of several sweet shops

I'm suspicious of posts littered with errors that claim to be from teachers.

YANBU

We tried to raise our children to be very active- weekends were often spent doing sports or walking in the countryside/playing in fields or on the beach etc. We also tried our best to cook from scratch as much as possible (wasn’t always possible!)

Our DCs are 20 and 18 now. They’re pretty lazy and they love their junk food 😩 One of them is more active than the other as they enjoy competitive sports. The less active one has recently put on a bit of weight and has now started doing some regular exercise and being more careful with diet. The example they have always been given is two very active parents, so it’s not that they’ve been set a poor example. I’m hopeful that they’ll both come out of this lazy phase and get more active in adult life. To be fair, they are both more active than many of their friends but it’s just things like when they choose to drive a mile up the road rather than walking that frustrates me.

But to be fair I was also very lazy at their ages, and ate a lot of junk food (not to mention I was in the pub 5 nights a week and they aren’t doing that so in some ways they are healthier than I was at their ages).

16 and 17 not sure why thats relevant?

Of course it is!! Isn’t that obvious that that would happen as soon as screens are introduced? 1 minute more on a screen is 1 minute less playing outside than 50 years ago.

Yes it is , and down to the very useless style of parenting that has cropped up over the last 10 years or so

One of them is your own daughter, and you’ve only just noticed that she is overweight and does no physical activity?

it was a realisation moment... I guess we all have them

Why?

There is a huge difference between a 5 year old and 16 year old. It’s a very strange thread this now. It’s an interesting point discussion though.

Lack of activity, less of freedom in childhood, socialising online gaming and so on. More fast food and UPFs. Relentless snacking and more and more families not eating meals and children not being able to sit for meals.

That's hugely relevant because it's a difficult age for girls and exercise/sport/activity. They're too old to naturally 'play' actively in the way younger kids might, but if they don't have a sport they are into or an active commute, then it can be hard to foster an active lifestyle.
Did/does she walk to school and back? My DS is not sporty but walks about 20,000 steps a day to his secondary school, around the school and home again. Car use kills fitness. I think that lives are no longer naturally active and so everybody from teenagers onwards need to take responsibility to be make and effort to be active. Although having said that, I'm not sure what you and your DM expected around a pool at their ages? For them to be running about like little kids?

16 and 17 not sure why thats relevant

From your OP I thought they were much younger. At that age I lay around on holiday.

What did you do on holiday OP? Were you active? How much activity did you do at 17, either on holiday or otherwise?

What else did you expect a 17 year old to do on holiday???

My dc are definitely more active than I was when I was a child. But I think that has a lot to do with the sort of parents they have. Dh and I both quite active and outdoorsy. My parents were definitely not the sort to engage in much outdoors or physical activity.

What sort of holidays do you do as a family? We do pretty active ones. Walking, swimming, canoeing, cycling, climbing. If you as a family eat junk and aren’t active, it’s not going to be surprising children may be a bit overweight and inactive.

I mean…. At 17 I definitely lay around on holiday probably drinking cocktails but I think your observation is valid. It’s very worrying when 5 year olds can’t run or get out of breath walking up stairs.

I'm certainly no expert but one would hope a teacher could construct a sentence or two using correct spelling and grammar. If they can't, they probably think saying they're a teacher will add weight to their argument.

Oh I see. I can’t IMHO see how claiming to be any kind of profession would add gravitas to any argument on anonymous online forum. But there you go!

I am a teacher and these are my observations. I’ll go back to pretending I’m not. It’s much easier. Less societal weight of expectation.

I obviously know childhood obesity has been rising for years — I’m not claiming I’ve just discovered that 😅 I think what shocked me was seeing it up close in my own family and realising how normalised certain things have become.
It wasn’t even really about “looks” initially, more the fitness side. Watching two teenagers struggle walking uphill from the pool, constantly exhausted, constantly snacking, avoiding activity wherever possible etc was a bit of a wake-up call for me if I’m honest.
And yes, before people say it, I know teenagers lounge around on holiday. I did too. But I don’t remember girls my age carrying so much weight around their middles so routinely or seeming so physically unfit day-to-day. My mum was honestly shocked seeing DD and her friend sitting slouched in bikinis after lunch with their stomachs properly pushing over waistbands while they were both still talking about ordering more snacks five minutes later. She kept saying girls just didn’t seem built like that in such numbers years ago unless there was a genuine weight issue.
I know people hate discussing it because it immediately becomes “body shaming,” but I do think we’ve quietly accepted children being much more sedentary and overweight than previous generations were.

My children are very active but that’s because I currently control their schedules. They’re 4 and 8. They swim three times a week, eldest has two days of PE a week at school, plus after school sports once a week. Youngest has PE once a week at preschool, one session of rugby at the weekend. They both have lots of outdoor play at school break times.
We’re guilty of letting them laze around the house at the weekend when all activities/jobs are done.
They're absolutely carved out of the wood. I hope this continues into teenage years and adulthood - it’s something that worries me daily.

The sheer abundance of food is the issue here. I don’t remember snacking really at all at that age on holiday. We’d have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Diet Coke and maybe an ice cream but no relentless snacking.

I was surprised when I took my DC and their partners on holiday. Mine are fit but their partners are overweight - but it was the BREATHLESSNESS that shocked me. We had to pause on hills. I'm not remotely fit but they were like old people with heart conditions.

Active travel is SO important for our nation's health. Like you, I didn't realise until this holiday but I was shocked.

It’s dreadful.
Allowing a child to become too thin is child abuse. But letting them be fat isn’t.
Far too many excuses made about ‘puppy fat’, faddy diets and lack of movement. And it will only get worse.