By Diana Long.  At the end of May I participated in Disruptive Women’s  Breakfast Series, Childhood Obesity:  A Big Fat National Challenge.  We were supporting the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign. 

Don Mathis, a fellow panel member, and CEO Community Action Partnership provided an interesting perspective.  “We’ve watched the obesity numbers for adults more than double over the last three decades.  Why didn’t we realize that it was just a matter of time before we saw the same trend in our children?”  Childhood obesity has tripled over the last 30 years and now stands at 17% of children and adolescents (ages 2-19); the percentage of overweight children is at, or above, 30 percent in 30 states.  Obese children and adolescents are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes and are more likely to have learning problems.

At the end of last month the CDC released a new report on adult obesity.  The news is “America’s waistline is still growing, or holding steady in some states, but not shrinking at all.”  In other words, we’re still fat.  Thirty-four percent (34%) of us are overweight and another 31% are obese.  If you’re wondering if this includes you, according to the National Institutes of Health “anyone with a body mass index (a ratio between your height and weight) of 25 or above – that’s someone, for example, who is 5-foot-4 and 145 pounds — is considered overweight.  Anyone with a body mass index of 30 or above — such as someone who is 5-foot-6 and 186 pounds — is considered obese.”  You can check out your own BMI using the quick calculators on the CDC or WebMD websites. 

So who’s the fattest?  The CDC Report states “In 2007-2008, the prevalence of obesity was 32.2% among adult men and 35.5% among adult women”.  Some good news, however, “The increases in the prevalence of obesity previously observed do not appear to be continuing at the same rate over the past 10 years, particularly for women and possibly for men.”  A 2009 analysis commissioned by Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that “the Baby Boomer generation has a higher rate of obesity compared with previous generations.  As the Baby Boomer generation ages, obesity-related costs to Medicare and Medicaid are likely to grow significantly because of the large number of people in this population and its high rate of obesity.  And, as Baby Boomers become Medicare-eligible, the percentage of obese adults age 65 and older could increase significantly.”

In her June 6, 2010 DW blog Fox TV’s Dr. Archelle Georgiou shared questions from her viewing audience that were especially interesting to her.  Charles, a 5’8” gentleman weighing in at 215 lbs., wrote in for help with his weight problem.  When he received Dr. Georgious’ advice, however, he seemingly took offense (or had a good sense of humor) and asked “So what you’re saying is I’m fat?”  “Yup!”, she replied, then editorialized “I’m amazed at how often people convince themselves that the BMI definitions of overweight and obesity don’t apply to them.”

It is just human nature.  We rationalize things; we deny situations or facts apply to us.  Like tobacco, obesity and inactivity increase the risks for the top three killers: heart disease, cancer and cerebrovascular ailments including strokes. Obesity and inactivity also strongly increase the risk of diabetes, the sixth leading cause of death.  But it won’t happen to me (or Charles)!

I was encouraged by Dr. Georgiou’s advice to Charles: diet, exercise, accountability, and social support.  “Join a program like Weight Watchers if you need to”, she said.  We hear a lot about diet and exercise – from our doctors, the media, and our friends.  We don’t hear enough about the other two:  accountability and social support.  These may be the ingredients we really need in our diets.

Accountable means answerable.  You make a promise; you agree to change your behavior.  You own up.  You commit to yourself.  You encourage friends and family to “keep you honest” and to support you in your efforts.  You find a partner on the same journey and motivate each other (It’s probably how Wilma and Betty stayed so thin with those Brontosaurus-size portions.  They had each other and  an occasional girls’ night out.)   Experts also recommend daily reminders, journaling, or now-a-days blogging and tweeting your goal and progress (although that might still be a little much for some of us) to keep ourselves accountable. 

One thing Dr. Georgiou didn’t mention was incentives or rewards for a job well done.  Whether they’re extrinsic ($25 to get us started with a personal health risk assessment) or just 5 minutes of fun when we meet a small milestone, incentives (motivation) are another necessary ingredient for change

I’m excited to see more and more health programs enjoining us with those in our personal support networks/communities and building in rewards.  I encourage the creators to share innovations and perspective on this blog. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under Children. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.