Comment on "Obesity and the Environment: Where Do We Go from Here?"

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Abstract
Contrary to their conjecture, our data indicate that the energy gap in many children is much greater than 100 kcal/day and will require correspondingly greater efforts to close. We measured 1-year weight gains and estimated energy storage from precise body composition measurements using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry in 337 Hispanic children (mean age 11.9±3.6 years; range 5 to 19 years). Median 1-year weight gain of all the children was 12±9 pounds/year; however, weight gain differed by body mass index (BMI) status (Table 1). The median weight gain in normal-weight children who remained normal-weight (n = 141) was 9 pounds/year (range –11 to 22 pounds/year); the median weight gain in overweight children (defined as having a BMI in the 95th percentile; n = 167) was 16 pounds/year (range –12 to 39 pounds/year), in contrast to the 14 to 16 pounds gained in 8 years in adults (Fig. 1A). Some normal-weight children converted to overweight (n = 19), gaining 15 pounds/year, and fewer (n = 10) converted from overweight to normal weight, with a weight loss of 1 pound/year.