CalgaryDiabetic said: I think Dean's comments are optimistic there is no doubt in my mind that kids are fatter now than in the days of the dinosaur's. We used to do 12 hours of physical activity then. TV was generally boring except for a fine Toronto show called Front Page Challenge and John Wayne defeating some evil. And computers did not exist. Click to expand...

lolwhile that may be true the numbers have been lowered.there is no denying that.and if most of them are using the bmi is that a fair judgement.i see conspiracy s bantered about all the time with diabetes.anyone care to look up how much the "diet"world makes?there are all kinds of misleading facts and figures out there."Doctors often use a formula based on your height and weight — called the body mass index (BMI) — to determine if you are obese. Adults with a BMI of 30 or higher are considered obese. Extreme obesity, also called severe obesity or morbid obesity, occurs when you have a BMI of 40 or more. With morbid obesity, you are especially likely to have serious health problems.BMI Weight statusBelow 18.5 Underweight18.5 — 24.9 Normal25.0 — 29.9 Overweight30.0 and higher Obese "and there is thisThere is no perfect or ideal weight for a child because weight is related to height and body composition rather than age. The weight of a child or teenager (relative to their peers) can vary during growth and the growth charts can only give a general idea of a child or teenager's weight and height at a given age in relation to their peers. Use the growth charts, further down this page, listed under Related Links, to see the distribution of weights and heights of children and teenagers at various stages.So, is your child or teenager overweight? It is possible to get an estimate of whether or not a child's growth is appropriate by consulting the charts. If there is a large discrepancy between height and weight percentiles, it suggests that a child's weight is disproportional to his height. If so, it is possible that a child will be overweight. (Consult a doctor, for a professional evaluation, if you think your child is overweight before starting any sort of calorie restriction.)An example: 12-year-old Billy is 58 inches in height and 130 pounds in weight. Is there reason to be concerned?Consulting the growth charts, we see that 58 inches for a 12-year-old is just about at the 50th percentile. In addition, at 130 pounds and 12 years old, Billy is at the 95th percentile for weight. Therefore, while Billy is taller than only 50% of children his age (he's of average height), he is heavier than 95% of them! That is a large discrepancy and, therefore, probably something to discuss with a medical practitioner.Another example: 8-year-old Michael Jordan Jr. is 55 inches in height and 72 pounds in weight. Is there reason to be concerned?Look at the growth charts. 55 inches is extremely tall for an 8-year-old, above the 95th percentile. For weight, 72 pounds is right around the 95th percentile. So, while lil' Mikey is taller than most children in his age group he is also heavier than most children in his age group - he is proportional, suggesting that things are normal. "