News Release

"Because we simultaneously treat obese parents and children with the same program, the benefits extend to the rest of the family, too," says UB's Epstein.

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Release Date: March 14, 2012

BUFFALO, N.Y. Obesity in childhood can create serious compromises to physical and mental health and longevity, but parents who want to encourage healthier eating face significant challenges.

Now, a free, weight-loss program developed at the University at Buffalo, one of the nation's only programs proven to achieve and maintain long term (10 years) weight loss in children is enrolling Western New York families. The program is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

To be eligible, children must be overweight and between 8 and 12 years of age, considered the best age to intervene in creating healthy eating habits; they also must have at least one parent who is overweight.

Nearly 1 in 3 children in the US are now overweight or obese, says Leonard H. Epstein, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and professor and director of the UB program. "The number has doubled in the last 20 years and it keeps increasing. At the same time, nearly 2 out of 3 adults are overweight and 1 of 3 adults in the US is also obese."

Clearly, engaging in behaviors that encourage healthy eating and more physical activity is a tougher challenge than it used to be, Epstein continues. "Children today are faced with many more opportunities for unhealthy eating than they were just twenty years ago. There are many more high-calorie foods available. Portion sizes in restaurants are larger now and children have more opportunities to be sedentary than they used to have."

In spite of these challenges, UB's Buffalo Childhood Weight Control program has shown consistent success. That's because the UB program is one of the nation's very few childhood obesity programs that is evidence-based -- that is, based on the best available evidence from peer-reviewed scientific data. Those data, generated by prominent obesity researchers at UB and elsewhere, have long shown that treatment programs like UB's, involving both parent and child, are the single most effective way to achieve healthy weight in children.

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Families can enroll now in UB's free weight loss program for children and parents, one of the nation's most successful