health

Treatment of childhood obesity is broad-based and involves the
whole family, not just the affected child or teenager. The child’s
pediatrician can help draw up a treatment plan. Most plans include
the following:

• A reasonable weight loss goal for the child, no more than 1–4
  pounds (0.5–1.8 kilograms) per month. An overly ambitious goal
  is likely to lead to failure and making the child discouraged.
  
• A dietary prescription from the doctor that specifies the total
  number of calories per day and recommended percentages of calories
  from fat, protein, and carbohydrates.
  
• Increasing the child’s level of physical activity to twenty to thirty
  minutes per day in addition to school sports or other physical education
  activities.
  
• Nutrition education. This part of treatment usually involves
  asking the child to keep a food diary and monitor his or her daily
  food intake as well as learning about what makes a healthful diet
  and how the body uses food.
  
• Family involvement. This may involve nutrition counseling for the
  parents as well as advising them about substituting family outings
  focused on physical activity rather than television viewing. Several
  studies have shown that weight management programs involving
  the entire family are more successful than those aimed only at the
  overweight child.