'If a 9-year-old can do it, anyone can'

BreAnne Walden of Brandon gets teased no more after shedding 24 pounds in a weight loss program she tackled with her mom.

By ALINE MENDELSOHN

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 10, 2000

BRANDON -- A year ago, BreAnne Walden was an unhappy third-grader.

During recess, while other classmates played soccer and kickball, she shuffled along the sidelines. During gym class, while other kids raced ahead on the track, she trailed behind, the last to finish.

Several times, she came home in tears after classmates called her "Fat Mama." At 41/2 feet tall, BreAnne weighed 116 pounds.

"Not a lot of kids would play with me," says BreAnne, who just turned 10. Today, life is different for the Yates Elementary School student, who will be going into the fifth grade in August. After shedding 24 pounds, the Brandon resident plays defense in soccer and competes as a green belt in karate.

Though she is young, BreAnne is not alone in her weight struggle. Rising numbers of kids and teenagers are overweight. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the number to be one in five. The overall number of overweight teenagers has nearly doubled in the past 15 years.

These statistics trouble Pat Hare, who says the problem is only becoming worse. Although BreAnne certainly does not fall into the "morbidly obese" category, Hare, a dietitian at St. Petersburg's All Children's Hospital, has worked with such children, ranging from 100-pound toddlers to 400-pound teens. In general, she attributes the rise in youth obesity to a lack of exercise, increased portion sizes, unsupervised snacks and more dining out.

"I get discouraged," Hare says. "It really takes a change in lifestyle to lose weight. And for younger people, that means a change in the whole family's lifestyle, which takes a lot of motivation."

This month, federal health officials stressed the importance of a healthy lifestyle for young people by releasing the first guidelines for body mass index for children. Like the similar index for adults, it calculates the recommended total body fat percentage for people ages 2 to 20 ( see box).

After years of being heavy, BreAnne and her mom found that motivation. Since she was a toddler, BreAnne had been heavier than many children her age, says her mom, Kim Walden, who also wanted to lose weight.

"I felt so guilty because it was our fault that we had let BreAnne eat whatever she wanted," Mrs. Walden says.

With the encouragement of a family friend, the Waldens decided to take action: Together, mother and daughter joined Weight Watchers. After the initial weigh-in revealed BreAnne at 116 pounds and her mom close to 200, they knew they had made the right decision.

For BreAnne, the first day of the program proved to be the hardest. At one point, while counting out an exact serving of goldfish crackers, she became so frustrated that she cried. Already, she wanted to give up. But she didn't. Relying on each other for support, BreAnne and her mom stuck to the program, which limited their food intake.

Slowly but steadily, in six months BreAnne dropped 24 pounds, dropping from a girls' size 16 to a size 10. As a result, today she can do many things she couldn't do before, including outrunning many of her classmates.

And the best part? "I'm a lot more confident," she says.

Increased confidence is one of the strongest motivations for losing weight; for some people, it is even stronger than the reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes. In fact, Hare says the emotional danger of obesity can be just as great as the physical.

"It can be really devastating," Hare says. "Kids can be cruel to each other."

So cruel that they never forget it. Just ask Terry Raphael, nutritionist area supervisor for Tampa Bay National Weight Loss Centers. Throughout her childhood, Raphael struggled with her weight and endured endless teasing from her peers. She still vividly remembers the nicknames -- dinosaur, elephant, tank -- and even today it is difficult for her to talk about it.

In her teens, Raphael lost the weight, and from her experience she has some advice for parents: "Parents can be very controlling," she says. "Kids can only lose weight if they want to, not just because their parents are forcing them to do it."

Nutrition experts hesitate to use the term "diet," noting that permanent weight loss results only from permanent life changes. Though virtually every drugstore has an aisle packed with quick-fix weight loss products, Hare says participants in fad diets usually regain the weight. Two of the keys to weight loss are reducing portion sizes and increasing physical activity. And the best news: Occasionally, splurging is acceptable.

"Once you make something forbidden," Hare says, "you're doomed."

BreAnne keeps this thought in mind as she continues to keep the weight off. When she attends birthday parties, she enjoys pizza and cake like all of the other kids, though she knows she can't eat junk food all the time.

Green-eyed and suntanned, BreAnne is enjoying her new self -- and her new wardrobe. She exchanged her stretch pants and baggy T-shirts for short shorts, tank tops and bikinis. (Her mom isn't particularly enjoying the price tag of the new wardrobe, but she doesn't mind that much, seeing how happy her daughter is.) And as a reward for losing so much weight, her mom even treated her to a glamor shot photo session, to capture the new BreAnne.

"Now my family tells me they have no excuse for being overweight," says Kim Walden, who lost 41 pounds herself. "If a 9-year-old can do it, anyone can."

Healthy snacks

Here are some examples of guilt-free, good-for-you snacks:

Unbuttered/light popcorn

Fruit

Minipizza (English muffin or bagel topped with tomato sauce and low-fat cheese)

Rice cakes or graham crackers with peanut butter

Raw vegetables and low-fat dip

Low-fat yogurt mixed with crunchy cereal

Baked potato topped with low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese

Source: Weight Watchers

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