but i do agree that the parents have something to do with it, as when their child was younger they cant help but keeping them satifyed by giving them unhealthy food. this gives the child a bad food habit that they cant help. also the parents dont always encourage their child to excercise, or make sure that they have a balanced diet. but some parents do so, like my parents. they always make sure i eat healthily which did a good thing for me and i am nowhere near obese. because my parents always got me familiar to salads and veg, i started to like them and now i am happy to eat them. no complaints. however i do get cravings for chocolate every now and then but i have self control and stop myself. but that does not mean i dont treat myself ever now and then. i do. but i am aware of how much i eat and make sure i have a balanced diet. then if i feel that i gained some calories that day i go and excercise. i am a very active person, and i am in lots of sports clubs, which then allows to lose the calories i have gained, which make me feel good.

so all i am saying if u control yourselves and have a good deal of excercise and healthy food then their is nothing wrong for every now and then treating yourselves. and this will definately make you happy. overall obesity is 50 50 blame on the parents and the child, as each have their own responsibilities.

i hope my points are good, thanks.
my points may not be accurate as i am only 12 for goodness sake, but thats what i think, no one has to agree.
thanks bye xx

Most of these comments are about sanctimonious adults. Let me tell you all a fact you seem to have missed. No one cares if an adult is fat or not. If you care then fix it yourself. Because no one else cares about your problems.

But remember to care for your children, if for no other reason your Government as Kate says will treat you poorly if you don’t.

Most of you are utterly clueless as to what causes obesity, and this notion that calories burned must be greater than calories consumed (an application of the First Law of Thermodynamics) is such an oversimplification of the science to be utter nonsense.

I implore everyone here who thinks they know what good nutrition is to read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. It is a science book, not a diet book, and it will shred much of what many of you think you know about what comprises healthy eating (hint: it is the carbohydrates that make people fat not saturated fats – that’s a blanket statement so not totally true, but trust me, read the book). Not all calories are the same – the human body evolved while consuming moderate fat, high protein, low carb diets (these are relative terms – low carb does not mean no carb). “Modern” carbohydrates (i.e., sucrose, white rice, bread, potatoes, peas, corn, string beans, legumes, etc.) wreak havoc on our metabolic systems/pathways and cause hormonal changes (long-term insulin elevation) that destroy our bodies from the inside-out.

And those of us who put on weight easily are prone to fudge the amount of food we actually eat – which is one reason Weight Watchers has you keep a record. You have to count points, but you also develop an awareness of what a portion size actually is, and when you start thinking back to what you were eating before you suddenly realize where those extra pounds came from. The most extreme case of self-deception I know of was a very obese young woman I once worked with who swore her metabolism was slow, her thryoid was bad and her genes worked against her because all she had for breakfast was a bowl of cereal and salads for lunch. And one or two Kit-Kats during the day. Well, she did eat salads for lunch. But I noticed that that one Kit-Kat bar was present all day long. One evening after she left work, l peeked at the wastepaper basket by her desk. The trash was emptied every evening. The thing had at least a dozen Kit-Kat wrappers in it.

She’s an extreme case, but we’ve all done it – watched TV, decided to have a few chips and – whoa! the bag is empty! Understand that I’m not speaking from the contemptous viewpoint of someone who has never been fat and can’t understand how it happens. I put on 60 pounds when I quit smoking and it’s taken me 5 years to lose 48 of those pounds. And the last 12 are really putting up a fight – they’re comfortable and at home on my thighs and hips and don’t want to go anywhere! But they’re not there because of my genes, my thyroid, or my meds. They’re there because I ate more than I should have and exercised less than I should have. And that’s true of the overwhelming majority of fat people.

Also, I have a daughter-in-law who is about 35 lbs overweight (according to BMI) but she runs marathons.

Whatever works for whoever, but don’t assume you know what I eat or what I do. Or what anyone else does, even the skinny people.