Does a “fat baby” have to lose weight?

Award-winning works (article category) of the Health Management Committee's "Popularize health knowledge, advocate healthy life" popular science collection

Author: Guan Rui

Unit: Beijing Rehabilitation Hospital, Capital Medical University

In recent years, the obesity rate among children and adolescents has increased rapidly and has become an important epidemic. The health problems caused by obesity do not only harm the middle-aged and elderly. Although obese children look cute, their lives are not so happy. Excessive weight makes them encounter many difficulties in physical education courses, and some children are also troubled by high blood lipids, making them prone to diseases common in adults, such as diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, kidney disease, etc. What's more, some children have shown cardiovascular damage that usually occurs in the elderly.

The health threats faced by "fat babies" are more severe than those faced by adults. Not only do they have the potential risk of adult metabolic diseases, but if fat accumulates excessively in the brain, it will also affect the growth of the neural network, leading to decreased intelligence and slowed reflexes. In addition, excessive fat accumulation in the body may also damage the pituitary gland, causing fatty formation of the posterior pituitary gland, which will interrupt the production of gonadal hormones and growth hormones, and have a significant impact on their physiological growth, fertility, and sexual maturity. For obese boys, they may face the decline of the development of the prostate and testicles, resulting in stagnation of the development of their reproductive organs. In adulthood, they are likely to suffer from sexual dysfunction, and in severe cases, they may even suffer from infertility. For obese girls, they often experience premature menarche, which may affect ovulation in adulthood. At the same time, the levels of estrogen and progesterone may also be greatly reduced or even disappear, which may eventually lead to infertility.

Childhood obesity may cause diseases of the blood circulation and endocrine system. Worse still, obesity may deprive children of their talents and cause great psychological harm, which may affect their intellectual growth and their thinking and operational abilities. Children who are overweight are more likely to face social difficulties, such as alienation from others, low self-esteem, anxiety and depression. It is also important to note that girls are at higher risk than boys.

According to research, people who are obese as children have a 75% chance of continuing to gain weight as adults. The earlier they become obese, the more fat they will have when they reach the end of puberty. Coupled with the weight gain in adulthood, the chances of developing obesity-related diseases will also increase accordingly. However, those children who were always disliked for being too thin and not cute when they were young have only a 10% chance of gaining weight when they grow up.

Many parents of "fat babies" are facing a dilemma: on the one hand, they know that obesity may have some negative effects on their children, but on the other hand, they worry that losing weight will affect their children's normal development. Adolescence is an important period of development. If they do not get enough nutrition, they may suffer from maldevelopment such as short stature. And losing weight means restricting their diet and reducing their intake, which can easily lead to malnutrition. Therefore, many people do not recommend that children and adolescents lose weight. But these are all based on the premise that obesity has no impact on health. In view of the serious physical and mental harm that obesity can cause to children and adolescents, when obesity has seriously threatened health, losing weight should become a must.