I agree with everything you said, Ms A.

My understanding (and this is perhaps overtaken by newer knowledge) is that the number of fat cells in your body is largely determined by your weight as a child. If you are overweight as a child, you will have more fat cells than you would if you were at a healthy weight. Furthermore, once created, those fat cells don't go away, the merely shrink or grow. So, if you are severely overweight as a child, the odds are really stacked against you as an adult because you have this overabundance of fat cells just waiting for something to store.

A similar situation exists for people the become obese as adults, because that is when they can also create new fat cells that, once again, are there to stay.

But (assuming this is still largely the case), this underscores the importance for taking steps to ensure that your kids are never significantly overweight, from infancy to adulthood. That is how you stack the deck in their favor.

I, too, am amazed at the obesity rates among children. But one thing that I noticed was that the obesity rate among the kids in DD's youth orchestra is surprisingly low, especially by comparison. Her group has about sixty people in and I would guess that perhaps three or four are obese and perhaps another ten would be considered overweight. Most are amazingly trim. While a few of them are involved in sports, the vast majority are not. But I would also venture that these are not normal kids -- they have a level of focus and commitment to achieving a long-term success that also seems pretty rare and I can picture how that personality trait may make it easier for them to put off most kinds of short-term gain (that candy bar) in favor of long-term goals (being at a "good" weight).