Obese children and adolescents need to limit their access to food consumed away from home and sugar-sweetened drinks as there is a relationship between these foods and body fatness.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship of juvenile obesity to dietary fat, particularly saturated fat, and with dietary energy (controlling for activity patterns). DESIGN: Cross-sectional, evaluation of diet and activity patterns of obese and non-obese children and adolescents. SUBJECTS: A total of 181 children, aged 4 -16 y. Subjects were divided into two groups: obese (body mass index, BMI, > 95th percentile for age and sex), 40 males and 51 females; and non-obese (BMI < 75th percentile for age and sex), 35 males and 55 females. MEASUREMENTS: Dietary intake was analyzed with a dietary history interview; activity patterns were analyzed with an activity interview and body fat was measured with bioelectrical impedance analysis. RESULTS: The obese subjects consumed significantly more total calories, total fat in grams and saturated fatty acids (SFA) in grams than did the non-obese subjects. Based on step-wise multiple regression, the total energy consumed, not total fat or SFA, had the strongest relationship to the subject's percentage body fat, controlling for activity levels. CONCLUSION: We suggest that, although obese children and adolescents consume more dietary energy and fat than nonobese children and adolescents, there is a stronger relationship between total energy consumed and juvenile adiposity than with dietary fat or type of dietary fat consumed.

No abstract

Clinicians need to be aware that overweight children and adolescents are less active than nonoverweight children at an earlier age, particularly females, but feel that their activity level is similar to that of nonobese children.

Even though children may consume an excess of energy, they may not be meeting all of their micronutrient needs.