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Inspiring?

yeah maybe.....



I was the fat kid at school.  I remember doing the 1500m in a school sports day and coming dead last by a long way, each of those laps taking forever.

Lets be realistic though.  It is diet that will get rid of this kid's fat gut.  Activity is great and he should be out there moving....but diet is a lot more efficient.

Also Nike will have nothing to do with his greatness.  If he loses weight and gets fit then that will be fantastic.  But shoes or kit will not do it.  His diet and activity will.

I will quote Mike from Facebook


Weight loss is 85%+ nutrition, exercise does have a complimentary role. Time and time again exercise (esp just cardio) promoted as a solution to weight loss yields little long term results. 
Same can be said for fad diet, as people stop at some point. 
IMO kids need to learn (and actually enjoy) eating more real foods as a sustainable solution (as they will tend to eat less overall calories as well). Perhaps it needs to start at home with more cooked meals, or involving kids in cooking. 
Kids should also be told what my mom told me as a kid when I got home from school "Just go outside and play". Being active doing something can also take away from just mindless eating tendencies.  
However promoting cardio (higher HR) based exercise as the solution without attention to diet is temporary results at best...weight gain/yo-yo for years to come most likely...and chronic stress issues to hormones at worst. 
Kids should be "active"...not in "running" as cardio, but just going out to play. We can all just go be active with activities that are "fun"...or "go play". 
This comes from a person who on occasion does like to go for a trail run/hike or mountain bike ride (but it's more just to enjoy being in nature than worrying about calories burned). No HR monitors and I just go a pace I enjoy.  
Nike could have easily just encouraged kids to go be active in a playground or kicking a ball around...not push them towards endurance running as a solution...and for that reason, I disagree (that's the nice way of putting it).

Yes, I used to be the fat kid.  But it was not jogging that got me where I am today:


Comments

Unknown said…
What running is do for that kid is teaching him that he can persevere, overcome obstacles and achieve his goals.

Confidence breeds success breeds confidence etc. it's a positive feedback loop.

The first thing an obese kid needs is confidence that he/she CAN change his or her condition. A lot of these kids have never experienced success of any kind.
August 3, 2012 at 1:48 PM
Chris said…
I know. Like I said I was that fat kid. Runnign though is not the most efficient thing for him to do. Diet and weights will get the weight off a lot faster and more effectively.

I want him to succeed. I have been there. Jogging is an inefficient route. That is all
August 3, 2012 at 1:51 PM
Anonymous said…
I was also the fat kid growing up. If all the running this kid is doing is for weight loss and it doesn't work, it could reinforce the belief that no matter what he does, he is just stuck with his current body shape. This was what a lot of exercise made me think when I was young and still fat. The idea that it's just all about exercise and starving yourself is a bunch of garbage. Besides the pounding on the joints for heavy people isn't good at any point in one's life. Get his weight down with nutritious diet and some kind of reasonable exercise. Shame on Nike for not finding a better exercise to inspire overweight kids.
August 3, 2012 at 3:13 PM
Three Pipe Problem said…
@Unknown, let me guess, you are an endurance runner. What endurance running will *also* do for that kid is reduce his basal body temperature dramatically, seriously increase the risk of premature death, and destroy his joints. No doubt, you don't want to hear these things, but if you can overcome that perhaps you can do some fact finding on these topics.
August 3, 2012 at 3:52 PM
nada said…
Hi Chris ,
On Renaissance Exercise you asked
"What are your recommended TSC approaches for lower body? .....what do you do for thighs? Do you use the leg press? I am thinking of how to utilise TSC more with no equipment. There is the wall sit but that is really a yielding isometric."

What do you think of Wall sit where you push your back against the wall using the TSC protocol? Maybe with a support under the foot.Like a stable block of wood that's inclined such that heel of the foot will be at the bottom of the inclined plane -foot slightly dorsiflexed instead of neutral position -without which it will be difficult to push. I hope you got what I mean.
August 4, 2012 at 4:04 AM
Chris said…
Nada

Thanks. I think I see what you mean. Time to experiment.
August 4, 2012 at 5:11 AM
Bill said…
I'm sorry, but the guy in the pic with his shirt pulled up looks like a prisoner of war survivor. All of us who think lean is a health advantage need to read The Diet Myth (also seen under the title The Obesity Myth) to see where we've gone wrong. Those with higher BMI's generally have a lower mortality. Underweight is a much greater risk than overweight. A person who is overweight and exercises will generally be healthier than a person person who has a "healthy" BMI and does not exercise. Fat can't be isolated out as far as being negative to health. It's poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle. Improve the diet and increase the exercise and health will improve regardless of whether or not there is a loss of weight. We could all stand to be less smug with our "healthy" BMIs and have more compassion for those who battle with weight.

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2009/12/top-10-obesity-myths/
August 5, 2012 at 7:54 AM
Ondrej said…
Leanliness really doesn't matter that much. But: if ou go to operation, your survival risk is calculated based on the amount of muscle mass. Ask any doctor. Old fat ladies with no activity are in risk. Their relatives usually don't understand this because they look "well fed", but muscle mass is the key, not weight. And great fat:mass ratio is cool at the beach and certainly positive:-) Lack of fat is never a problem unless under extreme, extreme conditions.
August 5, 2012 at 10:23 AM
Chris said…
Bill

your assertions are not quite correct. Check out the analysis of the impact of BMI on longevity at

http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/lowest-mortality-bmi-what-is-its.html

and

http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/lowest-mortality-bmi-what-is-role-of.html

Fat free mass and nutrient quality are what really matter. Fat can certainly be isolated out as a problem! Also , that Britannica page you pointed to has a lot of dodgy assertions and myths - e.g. the warning against skipping a meal, that is old hat and no longer supported by the science.
August 5, 2012 at 12:39 PM
Anonymous said…
In regard to the commercial: I think we're being a little too inferential in our interpretation. The commercial isn't an explicit recommendation for how to most effectively/efficiently lose weight. Rather, its intent is to engender a sentiment that being great doesn't always have to be with a capitol "G." Everyone has a journey to undertake, even if it is not significant to anyone beyond oneself. Nice message, even if it's sheer Nike marketing.
August 7, 2012 at 10:07 AM
Bill said…
Chris,

I'm not really sure that those links are a good dispute what I said. As with most epidemiology, it's much ado about the miniscule. If I gain 20lbs and can no longer see any ab, but otherwise still live my current "healthy" lifestyle, there will be absolutely no effect on my health and longevity. We have to be careful as to what we are promoting and what is being promoted is almost a form of anorexia. What do anorexics do? They skip meals and exercise compulsively. It's a fine line. You are a "failure" in your health and fitness if you can't see your abs (body dysmorphia anyone?) when seeing your abs is not going to make one bit of difference. Again, I said that a person will be much healthier if they eat nourishingly and get regular exercise. Of that there is little doubt. Fat, though, is most often a symptom and not a cause. If a person eats better and exercises they may lose weight or they may not. However, they will see better health REGARDLESS of any great weight loss.

That said, I like still being able to see my abs and am going to hold on to them for as long as possible, but it's not for health. It's pure and silly vanity and nothing more.
August 7, 2012 at 3:00 PM
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