Are Children Lazier than they Used to be?

It certainly seems that today's children are lazier than they used to be, although it's not all their fault since many parents do not encourage their children to get active. Plus, there are so many more things for children to do these days, as they have hundreds of television channels to choose from; DVDs to watch; and a wide variety of realistic video games to play, and none of these activities require children to expend much energy. It is therefore unsurprising that childhood obesity rates have been on the rise.

Is the fact that children are lazier that they used to be such a bad thing? Well, as already mentioned, more children are being classified as obese, and this is bad news, because carrying too much weight leads to health problems. Children are getting heavier and often carry their weight problem with them into adolescence and adulthood. Unforuntately, once you've got into bad habits, it can be very hard to develop healthier ones, and if you continue to gain weight, you put your body under more and more strain.

Clearly, then, children ought to be doing more exercise. It is recommended that children should get at least an hour of physical activity a day, but many do not, and this is simply storing up problems for the future. The trouble is that it is far easier for parents to let their children play computer games than to accompany them to the park and play with them. Thus, it is not really children's fault if their parents themselves are lazy and lead a sedentary lifestyle.

Can Housework Really Count as Exercise?

So many people are failing to get enough exercise that health experts are always trying to find ways to encourage everyone to get more active. Thus, there are fitness 'tips' such as breaking down exercise into small chunks and taking the stairs instead of the lift. Another favourite is the idea that housework can count towards your exercise for the day. Ideally, individuals, should be getting at least 150 minutes of an exercise a week to stay fit and healthy, and yet even squeezing in half an hour of physical activity a day is a stretch in today's world of television, computers and long hours spent in the office.

Thus, of course everybody wants to think you can access the benefits of exercise by doing something that needs to be done - housework. Yet, there is evidence to suggest that individuals who count housework as contributing towards the amount of exercise they do are heavier than those who actually set aside time to play sport or do some kind of formal exercise. The suggestion is therefore that the kind of housework people do is just not strenuous enough to help them burn calories. You have to actually get your heart pumping faster and to feel a little bit out of breath to know you're pushing yourself and keeping fit, which you probaly won't get from dusting and sweeping.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24570276