A few brave principals across the US are advocating recess before lunch. Kids eat more, waste less food, return to class calmer, behave better and as a result, instruction time is increased.
Archive for category Physical Activity
School Recess before Lunch
Jul 29
Simple playthings such as balls, jump ropes, hula hoops and riding toys do more for encouraging physical activity than swings, jungle gyms and other stationary or fixed playground equipment.
Current Exercise Recommendations May Not Be Sufficient for Overweight Women to Sustain Weight Loss
Jul 28
In addition to limiting calories, overweight and obese women may need to exercise 55 minutes a day for five days per week to sustain a weight loss of 10 percent over two years, according to a new report released today.
Current recommendations prescribe 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week, for a total of 150 minutes per week.
To calculate the amount of exercise needed, John M. Jakicic from the University of Pittsburgh enrolled 201 overweight and obese women in a weight loss intervention between 1999 and 2003. All the women were told to eat between 1,200 and 1,500 calories per day. They were then assigned to one of four groups based on physical activity amount (burning 1,000 calories vs. 2,000 calories per week) and intensity (moderate vs. vigorous).
After six months, women in all four groups had lost an average of 8 percent to 10 percent of their initial body weight. However, most were not able to sustain this weight loss. After two years the women’s weight was an average of 5 percent lower than their initial weight, with no difference between groups.
The 24.6 percent of individuals who did maintain a loss of 10 percent or more over two years reported performing more physical activity (an average of 1,835 calories per week, or 275 minutes per week over the baseline level of activity) than those who lost less weight.
Source: Arch Intern Med. 2008;168[14]:1550-1559.
July 29th: This study has just been disputed on the Weighty Matters blog. Check it out here.
Potential policy intervention are systematically identified for each level of governance (local,state, national, international and organisational) in each sector of the food system (primaryproduction, food processing, distribution, marketing, retail, catering and food service) and each sector that influences physical activity environments (infrastructure and planning, education, employment, transport, sport and recreation).
Gary Sacks, Boyd A Swinburn and Mark A Lawrence published this important article in Australia and New Zealand HealthPolicy in June 2008.
In June, Australia and New Zealand Health Policy published this online thematic series. It includes articles of relevance to audiences in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.
The Parents Jury in Australian recently asked parents to take a critical look at their neighbourhoods and use the Active Community Checklist to assess their local area for activity friendliness. Find the 11 item list here.
Learn how to fundraise, build and advocate for great places to play in your community! Workshops will be offered in 7 US cities.
Playing new generation active computer games uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games but not as much energy as playing the sport itself. The energy used when playing active Wii Sports games was not of high enough intensity to
Research on 5471 Canadian 5. graders shows that kids with greater perceived access to shops had healthier diets. And kids with good access to playgrounds, parks and recreational facilities were less likely to be overweight or obese.
The Natural Learning Initiative promotes the importance of the natural environment in the daily experience of all children and families through environmental design, action research, education, and dissemination of information. August 7-9 meeting in 2008.