Inspiring?

yeah maybe.....



I was the fat kid at school.  I remember doing the 1500m in a school sports day and coming dead last by a long way, each of those laps taking forever.

Lets be realistic though.  It is diet that will get rid of this kid's fat gut.  Activity is great and he should be out there moving....but diet is a lot more efficient.

Also Nike will have nothing to do with his greatness.  If he loses weight and gets fit then that will be fantastic.  But shoes or kit will not do it.  His diet and activity will.

I will quote Mike from Facebook

Weight loss is 85%+ nutrition, exercise does have a complimentary role. Time and time again exercise (esp just cardio) promoted as a solution to weight loss yields little long term results. 

Same can be said for fad diet, as people stop at some point. 

IMO kids need to learn (and actually enjoy) eating more real foods as a sustainable solution (as they will tend to eat less overall calories as well). Perhaps it needs to start at home with more cooked meals, or involving kids in cooking. 

Kids should also be told what my mom told me as a kid when I got home from school "Just go outside and play". Being active doing something can also take away from just mindless eating tendencies.  

However promoting cardio (higher HR) based exercise as the solution without attention to diet is temporary results at best...weight gain/yo-yo for years to come most likely...and chronic stress issues to hormones at worst. 

Kids should be "active"...not in "running" as cardio, but just going out to play. We can all just go be active with activities that are "fun"...or "go play". 

This comes from a person who on occasion does like to go for a trail run/hike or mountain bike ride (but it's more just to enjoy being in nature than worrying about calories burned). No HR monitors and I just go a pace I enjoy.  

Nike could have easily just encouraged kids to go be active in a playground or kicking a ball around...not push them towards endurance running as a solution...and for that reason, I disagree (that's the nice way of putting it).

Yes, I used to be the fat kid.  But it was not jogging that got me where I am today: