Want Fit Kids? Be a Fit Dad

Research shows that children in father-absent homes have a higher risk of becoming obese and suffering all the health risks that come with excess weight.

But even if dad is around, it doesn’t necessarily mean his kids will be fit. That depends on how fit he is himself.

Several studies report that dads — more so than moms — have the biggest impact on the overall fitness and weight of their children.

In one, it was found that the father’s, not the mother’s, total and percentage body fat was the best predictor of whether or not the couple’s daughters gained weight as they got older.

Another study showed that a father’s (again, not the mother’s) body mass index is directly related to his children’s activity level. The higher the BMI of the dad, the lower the activity level of the child.

Other studies on mice suggest that a dad’s physical fitness may even influence their children’s health at conception. For example, one study found that obese father rats pass on the genetic traits for obesity to their children. Geneticists speculate that in carrying excess weight, the fat father rats experienced a change in gene expression and passed on that change to their offspring.

Whether you’ve got a fully-formed kid or just little swimmers that will one day contribute to a fully grown kid, your own fitness level is going to have a profound influence on your progeny’s health.

If you want kids who are healthy and active, then you need to be a healthy and active father. If you haven’t found the motivation to lose the 30 pounds you packed on while in college, let this be it: for better or for worse, your physical activity level will impact your children’s health for their entire lives.

Knowing you have such a tremendous amount of influence as a father, what can you do to leverage it in order to instill a love of fitness in your children? Below, we offer a few suggestions.

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