Parents are not the only ones confused regarding their child's weight. Children consistently underestimate the time they spend in front of the TV, computer or just sitting around, and overestimate the time they spend in sports or doing chores.

A group of 45 normal children, aged 11 to 13 years, were given an electronic monitor, which measures body movement, to wear around their waists during the day for two 4-day periods. The children were also interviewed in depth daily about their activities.

While, on average, children said they had played vigorously for 1 hour the previous day, they actually spent only about 2 minutes at this activity level.

Additionally, children estimated the time they spent in moderate activity-brisk walking, yard work or household tasks - to be 2 hours, but the actual time was only 50 minutes.

The study also confirmed that gender makes a difference in physical activity at puberty, since girls spent more time in sedentary or light activities and less time in moderate or vigorous ones.
If children-or adults-hear a recommendation that they should be engaging in 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous activity per day, and they believe that they're already beyond that level, then they might ignore the recommendation. The truth may be that they are getting much less than the recommended amount of exercise.

Combined annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies and the American Academy of Pediatrics May 19, 2000