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Back of the Pack: Getting the message?

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Getting the message?

Comments (4)
By Peter Hadzipetros

Statistics Canada is hinting that Canadians may be turning the corner in the battle of the bulge. A study released this week found that while we're still putting on weight — overall — we're not putting on as much as we used to.

Between 2000/01 and 2002/03, men between ages 18 and 64 plumped up by about 2.5 pounds. Women carried an extra 2.24 pounds on average. Over the next two years, we continued to add some weight — but substantially less (1.6 pounds for men and 1.25 pounds for women).

Sounds like good news — but it's not that good. It's like the rate of inflation. As long as there is inflation, prices are rising — life is getting more expensive.

More of us may be maintaining a stable weight — even dropping a little extra baggage — but on the whole, Canada's still getting fatter.

We may be shunning the smokes and cutting out the trans fats — but we're taking in substantially more calories than we were just 13 years ago.

The other troubling thing is that this survey leaves out the kids. And over the past couple of years, there's been no good news on the childhood obesity front. Over the past two decades, rates of overweight and obesity have nearly tripled among Canadian children, according to a report released by the Canadian Institutes of Health Information. The report's authors also note that four out of five Canadian kids aren't active enough to meet international guidelines for optimal growth and development.

And the Canadian Medical Association reported recently that the average kid spends three to five hours a day watching TV. The association noted that obesity rates among six- to 11-year-olds is up by 50 per cent and 40 per cent for youth 12 to 17.

Some of these kids will be old enough to be included the next time Statistics Canada looks at trends in weight change among Canadian adults. Tax breaks or not, will they tip the scale back the other way?

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Comments (4)

Bill Craig

Turn off the TV. Our kids get the TV from Friday after school until Sunday night. Thats it. Same goes for non school related computer use. The report cards are better, physical activity is greater, family interaction has increased. The kids admit that they don't miss it. We don't need another study. Get off the couch, turn off the TV and keep walking right past the fast food outlets.It's that simple.

Posted November 16, 2006 09:50 AM

A. Ventura

Cars have taken over the world. Walking is not safe or pleasant due to the the speed, carelessness and noise of vehicles. Cities need to be walkable. Vernon is not. Quite a few old people are hit and killed every year. I am an experienced cyclist (Vancouver, including the bridges) commuter and I do not feel safe cycling here due to all the big trucks lurching around carelessly. I thought a small town would be quieter and safer. Boy was I wrong. Sedentary life is killing me by the kilos. I have to leave here.

Posted November 13, 2006 07:01 PM

Armand Dupuis

Permanent weight loss is so easy! The first step is to stop listening to all the so-called weight loss experts, because if you lose the weight permanently, theyve lost a customer for life.

The Reality is that the people of N. America spend between $40 to $50 Billion a year for weight loss and the failure rate is over 95%. Theres something wrong with that picture!

One big scam is that the Weight Loss Industry has us believing its just a matter of finding the right diet, and every clinic claims to have it. The reality is that dieting isnt part of the solution, its part of the problem.

Its a Medical Fact that any calorie reduced diet WILL slow down your metabolism. Doesnt matter if its low carb or whatever, when you go off the diet you will eventually gain back more weight than you lost on the diet.

Dieting doesnt work. The results speak for themselves!

The other problem is the Fitness Industry. People go to Expensive Fitness Experts to burn off fat as weve been told to exercise to lose weight. The Reality is that over 95% of all the exercises that are done to burn fat, burn mostly sugar. Thats why its so hard to get rid of it.

Last spring I spoke to numerous fitness trainers. After confirming that they went to school to become Certified Fitness Trainers, I asked them if in their training had they been taught which exercises were best for burning fat? The answer was always NO!

After discussing with some of them how easy it really was to burn fat, the general consensus was: If its so easy to burn fat, then they dont need me. One even told me: Look, I know that these exercises dont burn much fat, but I get $65/hour as a Trainer. Thats how I earn my living, so...

Beware Experts!

Permanent weight loss is all about Lifestyle, and weight loss begins and ends in the Mind.

Posted November 11, 2006 04:36 PM

pattama poonuan

Canadians become fat, fatter, and obese because they have unhealthy diets and lack of physical activities.
First, we have talked about our unheathy diets and we are campaigning to change them to healthy ones.
Second, Canadian lack of physical activies because we live in an automobil culture or society. This culture affects our lives and environment in which we live. Most Canadians commute or travel by their cars because these vehicles are convenient (for us). Basically we drive from our house to our work and park our cars at parking lots near by. How much and how far do we have to walk and how much we burn our excess calories a day? At the same time as we are driving we pollute air that we breath in. This polluted air can cause us Asthma, other health problems, and other environmental problem swhich effect us at the end.
If Canadians get rid of this automobil culture and become less automobil dependent, we win twice. The fist win is that Canadians will become less fat, slim, and healthy, and the second win is we will have clean air to breath in and less environmental problem. (Car dealers and automobil manufactories will problably be agaist this comment.)
Finally, I admire and thank people, including myself, who walk, bike, or take public transit. And I would like to share this meaningful qoute with all human beings. (I read this qoute in an encyclopedia.)
"Teach our children that the Earth is the mother. Whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the son of the Earth." Chief Seattle of Squamish tribe spoke this qoute to US president Franklin Pierce in 1854.

Posted November 9, 2006 09:18 PM

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