Daily HealthBeat Tip

Working off the weight

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Like their moms and dads, teens can gain excessive weight. Researcher Sue Kimm of the University of New Mexico sees the gains in girls she and her colleagues tracked for ten years in the Washington, Cincinnati and San Francisco areas.

As activity fell, weight went up.

"The incremental difference was 15 pounds between active and inactive black girls. For white girls it was about ten pounds between active and inactive white girls." (11 seconds)

Active girls did the equivalent of two and a half hours of brisk walking a week; inactive girls did about half that.

So how can the kids get more active?

"For instance, let's encourage our teen-age girls to move dishes from the dining room table. Let the teen-agers push the vacuum cleaner � not around their room, but stairways, up and down." (nine seconds)

So there you have it, kids. Chores. Burns off some calories. Plus, it gets the house clean.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: September 2, 2005

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