Children ate 34 percent more calories when they were given larger portions of lunch that contained more calorie-dense foods according to a study by Jennifer Fisher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Children’s Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas and Barbara Rolls at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania, USA.

Children who sleep only 10.5 to 11.5 hours per day are 42 percent more likely to be overweight, and those who only get only 8 to 10 hours of sleep per day are 2.5 times more likely (245 percent more likely) to be overweight compared to children who sleep 12 to 13 hours per day according to a study from Laval University in Quebec, Canada.

Teenagers who eat breakfast weigh roughly 5-10 pounds less than those who do not eat breakfast according to a study by researchers from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. “[O]ur findings support the importance of promoting regular breakfast consumption among adolescents,” the researchers concluded.

“[F]ast food consumption now accounts for 10% of food ingestion by [U.S.] schoolchildren, compared with 2% three decades ago,” notes to a paper from Dr. Ashish Sinha from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Mexican-American children who eat at fast food restaurants the most are 2.2 times more likely to be overweight than those who ate fast food the least according to a study from researchers at the University of California-San Diego’s School of Medicine.

Overweight adolescents at 409 calories more on days that they ate fast food than days they did not, but lean adolescents did not eat more according to a study from researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Mass.

As of 1996, children were getting three times as much of their food from restaurants and fast food outlets as they were in 1977 according to the paper.

“Adolescent girls who eat quick-service food twice a week or more are likely to increase their relative BMI over time,” according to a study from researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Children 2- to 5.9-years-old who ate at fast food restaurants at least once a week were 55 percent more likely to be overweight than than those who ate there less than once a week according to a study from Harvard.

Children in the U.S. consume approximately 20 percent of their calories from fast food compared to 2 to 7 percent for children in other countries.

In 1970, Americans spent one-third of their money spent on food away from home, whereas, in 2001, this had increased to nearly half (47 percent) according to a paper from the RAND corporation.

Overweight children, 7- to 9-years-old, who were assigned to family-based group therapy that stressed a “health-promoting lifestyle” lost considerably more weight than those who were counseled individually—6.8 percent in six months versus 1.8 percent—according to a study from Finland.

Overweight and obese adolescents who, on average, were 15-years-old and were given ten weekly sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy followed by a phone call every two weeks were 12.6 pounds lighter after 5 months than children who acted as controls according to a study from Australia.

Nearly one-third of children 10-17 in U.S. (31.6 percent) were overweight or obese as of 2007, a total of 10.6 million children, versus 30.6 percent in 2003 according to an analysis of the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health.

“Our findings suggest that the obesity epidemic among children may not yet have reached its plateau for some groups of children.” the authors of the study concluded.

Childhood obesity among those 10-17 years-old in U.S. increased from 14.8% in 2003 to 16.4% in 2007 according to an analysis of the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health.

Childhood obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) in the ninety-fifth percentile or higher for a particular age and gender.

The prevalence of children who are overweight among those 10-17 years-old in U.S. remained stable from 2003 to 2007 according to an analysis of the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health.

Childhood overweight is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) in the eighty-fifth to ninety-fourth percentiles for a particular age and gender.

Children taking part in the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program are 4.5% more likely to be overweight according to a new study.

Children who attend public schools and who are taking part in the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program are roughly 3 pounds heavier versus children in private schools who are not part of the lunch or breakfast programs according to a new study.

Obesity among 8- to 9-year-olds in Italy varied from 7.5 percent in the north, to 16.6 percent in the south according to a “nationwide representative survey performed in May 2008 among third-grade students in 18 of Italy’s 21 regions.”

The risk of obesity is 1.5 to 2-fold greater in children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy notes a new paper on endocrine disrupters as causes of obesity by Bruce Blumberg from the University of California Irvine.

Among children who were about 12-years-old, each additional serving of sugar-sweetened drink increased the risk of obesity by 60 percent, and increased body mass index (BMI) by 0.24 units according to a study by David Ludwig and others at Harvard University.

This was after adjusting for differences in height, diet, lifestyle and demographics.

High-protein diets suppress appetite in adults, however, this does not appear to be the case in children or adolescents according to a NEW study from researchers at Leeds Metropolitan University in Leeds, UK.

This is the third time they have found this.

They also note that other studies have also found that high-protein diets fail to suppress appetite in obese children.

Every extra hour of TV watching is associated with an extra 2.2 lbs of body fat in Preschool children according to a new study from researchers at University of Aberdeen in Aberdeen, Scotland.

The prevalence of overweight was 27-41 percent less in 10- to 12-year-old children who spent more time outside according to a new study.

The prevalence of obesity among students aged 7- to 18-years-old in Beijing, China increased from 0.65 percent in 1985, to 3.40 percent in 1995, to 5.23 percent in 2000, and 8.53 percent in 2005 according to a new paper from Peking University in Beijing.

Obesity in rural schools was lower than in urban schools (6.6 percent versus 10.4 percent).