Having kids can make you fat

Is having kids bad for you? Yes says Helena Laroche, M.D., of the University of Iowa, and her colleagues. This is a story that has got a lot of press in the last few days as a study at the UI shows that parents eat more high fat foods and in general eat more than people without kids.

I hate to be the one that brings up some of these lifestyle differences because I have two kids but there are a few factors that would lead to obesity in parents. Those living with children also more frequently ate high fat food such as cheese, ice cream, beef, pizza and salty snacks but not chocolate, they reported online for the Jan. 4 issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

So why do I think as a parent that we parents have more of a problem with obesity than non-parents.

1. Junk food abounds – Having kids around means that there is a lot of oppotunity to eat the McDonalds, Pizza Hut and any other fast food that it just makes life easier to have the kids eat. This is not good for them or you, as we weaned ourselves from the easy way out we just overcooked so that there was a lot of leftovers for my lunch and future dinners.

2. Cleaning up the plates – Kids only eat until they are satisfied and if there is food left on the plate they will leave it. I am the most guilty of cleaning the plates. I hate to throw out any food but instead I have tried to more often than not throw the leftover food but instead pack it away for the kids next snack.

3. Treats – Again bad for us and bad for them. There is always chocolate and chips in the house. Why? I will never know. My wife is better at keeping these out of the house than me.

4. When can I exercise? – Single people and couples do have extra time to go to a gym as well as the disposable income often to join a place to work out outside of the house. I know that my wife and I let our gym memberships lapse after the birth of our first and nver joined back and instead workout at home when we find time.

5. When do I get to eat my good meals? – This time I do better than my wife. We eat with the kids but for breakfast my wife feeds the kids first and often does not get a chance to sit down to breakfast so this can lead to the danger of missing meals and then binging to make up the difference. My wife does not do this but given the opportunity I definitely do.

So there are really a lot of differences in the fitness and eating habits of singles or couples compared to those with kids. I think probably the best way to avoid any of the problems really does come down to planning your eating and planning your exercise but as we all know planning takes work and most of us will avoid it if there is an opportunity.

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