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# Kids Lose Pounds, Gain Fitness, in Houston Study
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/kids_lose_pounds_gain_fitness_0704100610/
- Published: 2010-04-07T06:09:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T12:46:17.000Z
- Description: In a six-month ARS-funded study of 57 overweight Houston middle-schoolers, those in an instructor-led program of four outdoor fitness classes and one nutrition class a week lost significantly more weight, and reported better physical quality of life, than peers given a self-help textbook.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Lifestyle, Health News, #vivvo-import

By Marcia Wood

Innovative, kid-friendly strategies for losing weight and gaining nutrition savvy—plus physical fitness skills—are emerging from scientific studies funded by the [Agricultural Research Service](http://www.ars.usda.gov/?ref=foodconsumer.org)(ARS).

For example, investigators [Craig A. Johnston](mailto:caj@bcm.edu), [John P. Foreyt](http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=43692&ref=foodconsumer.org) and Chermaine Tyler and their colleagues are building upon one of their earlier studies in which many of their Texas middle-school participants achieved weight-management success. The volunteers were primarily Hispanic children who were either overweight or at risk of becoming so.

The researchers are with the ARS [Children's Nutrition Research Center](http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site%5Fmain.htm?modecode=62-50-00-00&ref=foodconsumer.org) at [Baylor College of Medicine](http://www.bcm.edu/?ref=foodconsumer.org) in Houston, Texas, where Johnston and Tyler are instructors in nutrition and Foreyt is a professor of medicine.

Statistics that the scientists reported for the 6-month study were based on 57 overweight kids who wereassigned to either a self- and parent-taught program, or, instead, an intensive, instructor-led regimen.

For instance, once a week for the first 3 months of the investigation, kids in the self-taught group spent time in study hall reading a self-help weight-management textbook for youngsters. Meanwhile, their peers in the instructor-led team spent four class periods a week outdoors, improving their physical fitness, with a fifth session each week—indoors—learning about nutrition, healthy eating, and behavior-change skills essential for living an active lifestyle and making healthful food choices.

When evaluated at the end of the 6-month study, kids in the intensive, instructor-led course had significantly greater weight loss as well as greater "physical quality of life"—as measured by their answers to a standard questionnaire—than did the kids in the self-taught program. What's more, one and two years later, youngsters in the instructor-led team had significantly greater decreases in their body mass index, or BMI, than did the self-taught youngsters.

These preliminary results suggest that a school-based weight-management program might be effective in reaching large numbers of kids, according to the scientists. They published their findings in the journal[ *Obesity* ](http://www.nature.com/oby/index.html?ref=foodconsumer.org)in 2009 and in [*Pediatrics*](http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/contents-by-date.0.dtl?ref=foodconsumer.org) in 2007.

[Read more](http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/mar10/kids0310.htm?ref=foodconsumer.org) about this research in the March 2010 *Agricultural Research* magazine special issue on preventing childhood obesity.

ARS is the chief intramural scientific research agency of the [U.S. Department of Agriculture](http://www.usda.gov/?ref=foodconsumer.org). The Houston research helps improve children's nutrition and health, a USDA top priority.

Originally published on ARS.USDA.gov on March 1, 2010