Family Activity Calculator
When it comes to keeping your child healthy and strong, there is one “prescription” all doctors and health experts recommend: make sure your child is physically active and gets moving every day. Besides being a time when your child can have fun, physical activity keeps children healthy by:
- Building strong bones and muscles
- Improving balance, coordination and posture
- Improving cardiovascular fitness
- Improving self-esteem
Here’s another important reason your child needs to be moving more every day: physical activity is one of the best ways to keep your child at a healthy weight. This is because exercise burns excess calories, builds lean muscle and reduces body fat.
How much activity does your child need? According to health experts, children need 60 minutes of play with moderate to vigorous activity every day, but it doesn't have to occur at once. It all adds up!
To help you add more activity to your child’s life, Shape Up America! created the Family Activity Calculator, an online tool that will show you how fast and easy it is for family members to burn an extra 100 calories a day just by taking part in activities that everyone enjoys – from taking a walk to playing tag or jumping rope. And if you don’t think 100 calories makes a difference, consider this: burning an extra 100 calories every day translates into 10 pounds of weight loss over the course of a year!
So be the agent for change that gets your whole family up and moving. Click here, to learn how to “upgrade” your family’s activity levels so everyone can reap the benefits of staying healthy.
