Are chubby kids destined to be overweight adults?

It depends on how you look at the new research. On the one hand, researchers found a very strong link that would indicate it is very difficult to outgrow baby fat. Eighty percent of kids who were overweight as toddlers were still overweight by age twelve.

Add to that the fact that the overweight kids had at least one overweight parent, which can be viewed in two ways. Nature versus nurture: are the kids overweight because they have overweight genes, or are their parents passing on unhealthy lifestyle choices?

Sounds like it would be tough to fight destiny, doesn't it? But researchers didn't take into account how active these children were or how well they ate. Those two factors right there give parents an incredible amount of control in helping their children adopt a healthy lifestyle.

The question then becomes, can they do it? With modeling as the strongest influence for children's learning, the kids are bound to do what their parents do, not what they say.

That's Fit has posted ways to help kids beat obesity: stop drinking soda, become more active, and be aware of and limit high calorie foods. Let's hope that these types of steps can be taken by parents to improve their health and their children's health, for life.

Have any of you started taking steps to help your children (and yourselves) make better choices to fight obesity? What have you found to be an easy change that was accepted by your family?