Combating adolescent obesity: an integrated physiological and psychological perspective

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Optimizing the approach to combat childhood obesity, we emphasize the importance of combining both biological and psychological knowledge. In such an approach, strength exercises might be an important aspect in the treatment and prevention of childhood obesity. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent evidence indicates plausible effects of the role of resistance exercise in combating the negative health effects of childhood obesity. When looking at body composition, overweight youngsters do not only have a higher fat mass, but also a higher muscle mass compared with their normal-weight counterparts. With that, they are also stronger and better in exercises wherein the focus is on absolute strength, making them – under the right circumstances – more motivated to engage in resistance exercise and ultimately maintain a physically active lifestyle. SUMMARY: More and more children are obese, and obese children become obese adults. One reason that overweight youngsters are not physically active is that they are outperformed by normal-weight youngsters, and one reason they are overweight is because they are not physically active. To combat childhood obesity, strength exercise might be a solution to break the vicious cycle.