Adults and children both face health risks if their weight has gone far beyond the ideal. While it is almost normal for adults to acquire excessive body fat through time, many of us can hardly believe how a child is able to reach an obese weight that’s comparable to and adult’s 30 body mass index. This means having 95th percentile or severe level of overweight, wherein the child will suffer from raised blood pressure and lipids as well as increased health risks. None of the parents would ever want their children to suffer such a risky health condition, thus many seek for remedies, solutions, and tips on how to reduce their kids’ weight or keep it right on scale.

How a child gets excessive weight has something to do with how much food they take and how active they are. To effectively keep these two aspects in regulation, the entire family has to be involved. Just as in the three steps in fighting childhood obesity, parents and older siblings need to participative and be cooperative.

What are these 3 steps in fighting childhood obesity? They are based on a new study featured by health.com, basically consisting of eating dinner together, getting enough sleep, and limiting hours spent watching television shows.

1. Eat Dinner Together – The reason is basically due to being able to teach children on regulating food intake. If you have consulted a doctor in medical scrubs or dietician about a diet plan applicable to your child, you will most likely be able to implement with strictness. During mealtime with the family, parents also get the chance to set a good example on eating habits and what healthy food should be taken.

2. Get Enough Sleep – Health experts say enough sleep is necessary for children’s growth. Perhaps, you remember why your mom insists that you take a nap in the afternoon when you were still a young. Sleep is the time when the bones grow the fastest. But it involves more than that as enough sleep will energize kids. As a result, they will be more physically active during the day, making them burn fat easier than when simply staying up late watching TV and barely moving in front of it.

3. Limit Time In Front of TV – Television can be very educational, but while kids spend hours in front of it, they deprived of the physical activities that most children enjoy. Hence, the amount of time spent on watching tv must be limited to less than 2 hours a day according to the new study. Replace it with activities wherein they’ll be physically active like playing ball games, biking, swimming, skipping rope and other family fun outings. Computer use and video games are forms of activities that are much like watching tv, so must be limited as well.

The study says that one out of seven who practice these 3 steps is obese, while one out of four among those practicing nothing at all. In fact, those who practice even just one of those routines lower the risk of child obesity by 25%. However, like what was mentioned in the outset, parents should be the example and older sibling must be cooperative enough. For severe conditions, do not choose activities or diet plans without consulting the guys in medical scrubs. They know best.