Well, I have a gen Alpha who is overweight, close to obese. We are super fit parents (both active duty Marines) and have two sons - one of whom is lean and muscular and one of whom is very overweight. What is the difference? I really don't know. Both kids have done sports from an early age. We are a very active family. Screens are used but not to excess. We eat very healthy and cook almost everything at home. We maybe eat out once a month and don't keep junk food or convenience food in the house.

Certainly our overweight kid has an innately different relationship with food than the rest of us. He doesn't seem to know when to stop or what portions are reasonable. We've tried to teach that, but it's always working against his natural instincts. He also tends to be a couch potato unless we actively make him move with us (which we do often and regularly).

I'm not sure if this is the norm for kids who are overweight or if our family situation makes him an outlier, but I wanted to make it clear that you can be very fit and a healthy eating family and still have an overweight kid.

We have definitely struggled with the balance between insisting on a healthy weight and creating self-image issues and possible eating disorders. I've seen enough of that at work with colleagues dealing with the Marine Corps's very strict weight standards and I don't want to create long-term mental issues surrounding food. We try to highlight keeping active and have him cook a lot of his own healthy food, but I think it will be a life long struggle for him. It is on our mind a lot as parents.

Too much food, snacking, sugar. Food as reward. Birthday parties at 2:30 that serve pizza. All the juice.
Food has been cheap and used as entertainment. No one needs a 16 oz milkshake. Serving sizes are way too large.
With all the asking, kids and people have no idea if they are actually hungry or not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's partially the food industry, partially the screens, partially that no kids play - they are in organized sports or sitting around on screens. So if you aren't an athletic, team sports oriented kid, there isn't much of a place for you to get activity. This is REALLY different than a generation or two ago. It also is a model that relies on parents who can afford sports registrations AND have the time to see it through which is a huge commitment.

Paranoid parents who are scared of outdoors, other people, life in general, keep their kids at home on screens where they think they are safe and sound.

This too. I am genuinely trying to get over my anxiety of letting my kid walk alone to the park. I'm not particularly scared of abduction -- I am afraid he will get smashed by a car

Or someone will call the police on you for allowing your child to have some independence.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The title should say "Why are Gen Z and Gen Alpha so obese?"

Yeah, there’s no cutoff. Alpha might be worse.

It is obviously food, and more specifically sugar. It is straight up addictive and food conglomerates know this and put it in everything in high quantities.

But there are other factors. A bunch of kids are on antidepressants/anti-anxiety meds which have weight gain as a side effect.

I have an Alpha who is overweight. My wife nixes attempts to restrict food because she doesn’t want our daughter to get a complex about food like she did. I still try to be smart about it, but it is unreal how so much of American society is built around eating as a reward/celebration.

If you try to limit food at a party look how the people here get attacked and vilified, especially by other ethnicities who want to deride Americans for being stingy and cheap. Gluttony all the way, every time.

Starbucks

Stop body shaming. It’s getting old.

MAGA
MAGA
MAGA

Easy

Sedentary

Anonymous wrote:I think obese parents are the problem.

It is rare to see families with overweight kids but two thin/athletic parents. Often kids with obese parents are thin up until a certain age then they start putting on weight.

I have seen families where the kids were totally normal weight as children, but then something happens and the kids gradually start putting on weight. It's like biologically the kids bodies were thin and they were healthy, but the parents' chronic overfeeding makes them obese?

IDK.

I have seen obese parents constantly push food on their kids even when the kids aren't hungry. I've seen parents offer a snack even though they could hold off and just wait for the next meal. I have also seen parents pile huge portions on their kids plates. I feel like parents are the problem.

Lots of sports have obese extremely out of shape parents pushing their kids the hardest, riding them the most. It's so hypocritical because if genetics are the issue then those kids are doomed.

I think obese parents are the problem.

It is rare to see families with overweight kids but two thin/athletic parents. Often kids with obese parents are thin up until a certain age then they start putting on weight.

I have seen families where the kids were totally normal weight as children, but then something happens and the kids gradually start putting on weight. It's like biologically the kids bodies were thin and they were healthy, but the parents' chronic overfeeding makes them obese?

IDK.

I have seen obese parents constantly push food on their kids even when the kids aren't hungry. I've seen parents offer a snack even though they could hold off and just wait for the next meal. I have also seen parents pile huge portions on their kids plates. I feel like parents are the problem.

Anonymous wrote:The title should say "Why are Gen Z and Gen Alpha so obese?"

Yeah, there’s no cutoff. Alpha might be worse.

It is obviously food, and more specifically sugar. It is straight up addictive and food conglomerates know this and put it in everything in high quantities.

But there are other factors. A bunch of kids are on antidepressants/anti-anxiety meds which have weight gain as a side effect.

I have an Alpha who is overweight. My wife nixes attempts to restrict food because she doesn’t want our daughter to get a complex about food like she did. I still try to be smart about it, but it is unreal how so much of American society is built around eating as a reward/celebration.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Millennial is 1981-1996
Gen Z is 1997-2012
Gen Alpha is 2013 to 2025

The very oldest millennial would have had to have had a kid before 31 to have birthed a Gen Z kid. Most millennials have Gen Alpha kids. Gen Z is mostly kids of Gen X.

Gen Z is also the most ethnically diverse generation. I’d like to see the obesity stats by race and SES.

SES is key I think. I go to a very diverse school and don't see a correlation with race. All of the kids from richer families are thin.

+1 it’s a low income and rural thing. You don’t see much severe obesity in DC, even in poorer communities. I live in Arlington and I very rarely see someone who is morbidly obese. Back home in my small town in NC? You can’t go anywhere without seeing it.

You and I must go to very different places in DC and the closer suburbs. I see legions of fat black teens and especially 20 some things in the district. I see very fat Latino, children, teens, and young adults in the district and Prince Georges County.

I see roly-poly Asian kids around Rockville when I shop there. And I’m not sure their parents country of origin, but I’ll just say children whose families immigrated from the Middle East. The teen boys, especially plump in Fairfax County.

PP was right. Go spend some time at a large mall. Get away from the private school corridor on Wisconsin Avenue in DC.

You are right but let me rephrase what I mean a little. The problem is exasperated in rural areas. I mean I see people with canes and using the motor wheelchairs in Walmart because of their size and children waddling around. Obesity to the point of a negative effect on mobility is what is rare for me to see here.

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data-and-statistics/adult-obesity-prevalence-maps.html

DC and Colorado have the lowest obesity rates in the country.

Data posted by OP is only through 2018.

junk food, processed food, screens and the internet and they no longer move or play sports anymore.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Millennial is 1981-1996
Gen Z is 1997-2012
Gen Alpha is 2013 to 2025

The very oldest millennial would have had to have had a kid before 31 to have birthed a Gen Z kid. Most millennials have Gen Alpha kids. Gen Z is mostly kids of Gen X.

Gen Z is also the most ethnically diverse generation. I’d like to see the obesity stats by race and SES.

SES is key I think. I go to a very diverse school and don't see a correlation with race. All of the kids from richer families are thin.

+1 it’s a low income and rural thing. You don’t see much severe obesity in DC, even in poorer communities. I live in Arlington and I very rarely see someone who is morbidly obese. Back home in my small town in NC? You can’t go anywhere without seeing it.

You don't go east of 16th Street much, do you?