London, June 30: Contrary to the commonly accepted
wisdom, exercise doesn`t prevent children from becoming obese,
for a new study has revealed that they are actually programmed
to be sporty or couch potatoes.

In their study, researchers have found that physical
activity daily has little or no effect on whether kids are fat
or not,a finding which means the obesity epidemic among them
is caused more by what they eat than lack of exercise.

In fact, according to the researchers, the amount of
exercise a child does is not linked to their body mass index,
a calculation of their height and weight used to measure if
they are a healthy weight or not.

"Each child is programmed to a particular level
of activity whatever you do to them they will modify their
activity to remain at that level, some will always do more and
some will always do less.

"Some children do meet the physical activity
guidelines and some don`t but BMI will not tell you which ones
do and which ones don`t.

"But it is worth doing exercise because there is
clearly a benefit in doing so, it is just that the BMI does
not reflect that," Lead Researcher Terry Wilkin was quoted by as saying.

He said the kids who are obese and who if they remain
overweight into adulthood will be at a greater risk of heart
disease, stroke and cancer later in life.

Bureau Report