According to the latest national statistics, almost one in four children are at or above the 85th percentile of weight for height on pediatric growth charts and are considered overweight. Treuth hopes to change that with a study designed to pinpoint factors involved in weight gain. While fat gain can be described as the storage of excess calories, the reasons behind this energy imbalance are complex. Heredity, family and social influences, the child's tendency to be active or sedentary, and food choices all may play a role. Children of overweight parents appear to have a 25 to 40 percent chance of becoming overweight adults according to some geneticists.
Overweight children are often less physically active.
Data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed children who watched four or more hours of television per day were more overweight and had a significantly greater amount of body fat. Food choices may also play a role in excessive weight gain among individual children. Obese children have been found to consume a significantly greater proportion of their calories from fat. According to Treuth, some of the girls in her study thus far have gained more weight than expected for normal growth. She believes that by analyzing the extensive profiles developed on each girl at the beginning of the study, she will find predictive factors that can identify normal weight children who are at risk for excessive weight gain.