Physical activity and obese children

Childhood obesity is an epidemic of global proportions, accompanied by an alarming increase in various metabolic disorders. It would appear that childhood obesity stems largely from excessive energy intake and that it is the ensuing obesity that leads to physical inactivity in children, as opposed to initial physical inactivity inducing obesity. How changes in body composition that accompany obesity influence physical activity (PA) and the mechanistic basis for this remains poorly understood. This review provides an overview of the PA habits and body composition of the obese children. We suggest skeletal muscle metabolism as a key driver of PA. The role both quantitative and qualitative changes in skeletal muscle may play in oxidative metabolism in the obese children are discussed. There is a real need for research examining the mechanistic basis of physical inactivity in the obese. The dearth of information on the role of skeletal muscle metabolism in the PA of obese youngsters and the emergence of new technologies allowing cellular and metabolite mechanisms to be explored provides plenty of scope for future work.