Maintaining a healthy weight
What is a healthy weight for a child?
Parents may find it difficult to tell whether their child has temporary “puppy fat” or is genuinely overweight. In adults, a simple formula (the body mass index or BMI) is used to work out whether a person is the right weight for their height.
However, BMI alone is not an appropriate measure for children – it has to be used alongside charts that take into account the child’s rate of growth, sex and age – and is best interpreted with the help of your GP, health visitor, practice nurse or dietician (See Charts Attached).
Obesity is defined as an excessive accumulation of body fat. Obesity is present when total body weight is more than 25 percent fat in boys and more than 32 percent fat in girls.
A trained technician may obtain skinfold measures relatively easily in either a school or clinical setting. The triceps alone, triceps and subscapular, triceps and calf, and calf alone have been used with children and adolescents. Example, when the triceps and calf are used, a sum of skinfolds of 10-25mm is considered optimal for boys, and 16-30mm is optimal for girls.
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