High-Intensity Activity Benefits For Children

High-intensity activity daily reduces body fat in children.

Children who undertake 10 minutes of high-intensity physical activity per day reduce the amount of body fat and improve their aerobic fitness, according to a study from the University of Eastern Finland and Cambridge University published by Sports Medicine.[1]

Cross-Sectional Associations of Objectively-Measured Physical Activity and Sedentary Time with Body Composition and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Mid-Childhood: The PANIC Study

KEY POINTS FROM THIS STUDY:

410 children from 6 to 8-years-old took part in the research.
The higher the intensity of physical activity undertaken, the stronger the association with the amount of body fat lost.
Exchanging sedentary behaviour such as sitting with moderate-intensity physical activity reduces body fat.
At least moderate-intensity physical activity is required to improve aerobic fitness.
Physical activity was assessed using a heart rate and movement sensor rather than observation or self-reporting.
DEXA (DXA) scans were used to measure body fat, which is often used as an accurate measure of body fat in children [2] in clinical research.
Children engaging in 10 minutes of high-intensity physical activity daily had 26-30% less central body fat than children who did not engage in high-intensity physical activity.

⇒ How much physical activity do we need to stay healthy?

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Study:
[1] Paul J. Collings, Westgate, K., Väistö, J. et al., Cross-Sectional Associations of Objectively-Measured Physical Activity and Sedentary Time with Body Composition and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Mid-Childhood: The PANIC Study. Sports Medicine, (2016) 

[2] Kakinami, L et al., Identifying the best body mass index metric to assess adiposity change in children. Archives of Disease in Childhood. Arch Dis Child, (2014)