How does age and environment affect weight control?

Transcription:

Weight control is a very different process depending on the age of the person and their environment. Any child under 11 years old is going to have great difficulty with self-monitoring 100%, writing everythng down. They just don´t have the organizational skills and the prefrontal cortex part of the brain is not really developed until people are closer to 30. So when you talk about 11, they are way off in terms of their ability to plan and organize and so on. So there´s a limitation there when working with very young people. It is really about working with the parents. They are the directors of the campaign. When working with teenagers, they can be very motivated, very focused. They can do just fine. When working with adults, you have to look at their environment. To what degree does it support their efforts or not? I have adults who come to me who work in bakeries, candy stores and want to lose weight. That is not a great occupation for someone who wants to lose weight. So the environment is part of the issue. You are looking at developmental abilities, emotional factors, but also the nature of the environment that surrounds that person.

Video Categories: ELEMENTARY, Kids Health Ages 5 to 12, TEEN, Health and Development

Watch Video: How does age and environment affect weight control? by Daniel S. Kirschenbaum, PhD, ...

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Expert Bio

Daniel S. Kirschenbaum, PhD

Weight Management Expert

Daniel S. Kirschenbaum, PhD, ABPP, is the President of Wellspring. He was Director of the Eating Disorders Program at Northwestern University Medical School, where he is Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Kirschenbaum is a Fellow and Diplomate in Clinical Health Psychology in the American Psychological Association and former president of its Division of Exercise and Sport Psychology. Dr. Kirschenbaum has provided invited addresses at many professional conferences world-wide, received numerous grants for research, and published 10 books and 150 journal articles on weight loss, sport psychology, and related topics. His books include: the first book published for professionals on the treatment of pediatric obesity - Treatment of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity; Weight Loss Through Persistence; The Sierras Weight Loss Solution for Teens and Kids (2007); and, The Wellspring Weight Loss Plan. Dr. Kirschenbaum’s research on sport psychology won the top prize for research on the mental game of golf from the World Scientific Congress on Golf (St. Andrews, Scotland) and Golf Magazine; in 2000, the American Council on Exercise and its Board of Directors unanimously endorsed his book, The 9 Truths About Weight Loss, as "the best book ever written for the public on how to lose weight and keep it off."