Overweight between perception and reality

Abstract Introduction. Obesity is a disorder characterized by an amount of body fat over the normal limits. This could be reduced when there are no metabolic disorders with good alimentation and increasing the level of physical activity. In prevention of childhood obesity beside the institution on the field that has the obligation to promote a healthy lifestyle, parents have the main role. They are responsible for the food that their children get and also for their teaching for a healthy lifestyle. However, many times, the parents’ attitude beside the obesity is inappropriate for various reasons. One of them is the fact that parents don’t perceive correctly their children body weight. The aim of this study is to assess the way a group of parents who have children enrolled to sports activity perceive their children body weight. We also wanted to check the way in which these perceptions are associated with possible attempts to lose weight. Participants and methods: In this study we evaluated 62 girls (average age: 10.29±1.32 years), these being enrolled to a private volleyball club from Timisoara. Testing protocol consisted in height measurement, evaluation of body composition and completing of a questionnaire by parents. Results. In the current research, there exist a few significant differences between the body mass index that was considered the base on which the children were put into different weight categories and the parent’s perception on the body weight of their own children; 38.7 % of the total of the children that were measured were overweight or obese and only 8.04 % were involved in a program that helps weight loss. Conclusion. The vast majority of questioned parents underestimated the real body weight of their children, choosing an inferior weight category, inferior to the real one. These perception errors of the parents affect the level of concern regarding the body weight of the children and, thus, the optimal attitude concerning it.