Research

Energy balance

A family-based intervention combining a modest increase in physical activity (2000 steps/day) with a specific dietary substitution (2 servings of ready-to-eat cereal/day) significantly reduces excessive weight gain and body fat percentage in overweight children and their mothers over a 13-week period.

To help prevent excessive weight gain in your family, focus on two small, manageable changes: add 2000 steps to your daily walking routine (roughly 20 minutes) and replace one usual snack with a serving of ready-to-eat cereal at breakfast. This approach is designed to be easy to sustain and has been shown to significantly improve body composition in overweight children and mothers over 13 weeks.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
The intervention was successful in increasing walking (steps) and cereal consumption. The intervention had positive, significant effects on percentage BMI-for-age and percentage body fat for target children and weight, BMI, and percentage body fat for parents. On further analysis, the positive effects of the intervention were seen largely in target girls and moms, rather than in target boys and dads.
Susan J. Rodearmel et al. · Obesity · 2006

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with a relatively small sample size (n=105 families) and short duration (13 weeks); self-reported dietary data has known limitations.

Source

A Family‐Based Approach to Preventing Excessive Weight Gain

Susan J. Rodearmel et al. · Obesity · 2006

DOI 10.1038/oby.2006.158

rct · n=105Cited 110×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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