Weigh Healthy Kidz helps overweight children
by JESSICA L. FINCH Associate Editor

Battling childhood obesity can be hard-fought without the right weapons.

Children must learn how to eat and live a healthy lifestyle to beat the epidemic that is rising at never-before seen rates.

Weigh Healthy Kidz, LLC, is a center designed to help parents and children learn about healthy eating with proven weight loss results. Weigh Healthy Kidz center directors Lana Green and Marina Borzynski said it is the first of its kind in the area.

Green said she has watched her children, now teens, deal with weight issues since they were young. She was looking for a plan to help herself and her children but had been unsuccessful. Introducing the right foods was something the family hadn't always done.

"This program gives parents a road map," she said. "It's easy to follow, but with any other plan, changing eating habits is hard."

She added that if children are used to eating doughnuts and cookies, they are going to miss them when they can't have them.

Weigh Healthy Kidz uses a weight management program designed by Dr. Wendy V. Sapolsky of Florida. Children are given a personalized binder with daily food diaries and several pages of how much of each food counts toward their daily intake.

Based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Food Guide Pyramid, the color-coded healthy-eating plan allows a certain number of fats, proteins, fruits/vegetables, dairy and grains.

Foods listed in the binder are divided by how many points of each food group they equal.

Green said her children admitted that they were worried about being hungry but actually feel full throughout the day. It takes planning to equally distribute the day's allowance.

Sapolsky started her program three years ago and has recorded that more than 85 percent of youths lost weight on the program.

Children lose and gain weight differently than adults. Because children are still growing, a child's individual program is re-evaluated every 12 weeks.

"It's about eating regular, normal foods," Borzynski said, adding that the program emphasizes a healthy-eating lifestyle and not a diet.

Because the program is individually designed for each child, youngsters are given their normal, appropriate calorie intake. By living within those means, the child loses weight.

Green said she started the center because there is nothing else like it in Western New York. In addition to the binder and meal plan, students can attend weekly sessions, which are divided into three age groups - 6-9, 10-13 and 14 and older.

"Parents need to understand the best thing they can do is go to the pediatrician, and if the doctor says the child is 10 to 15 pounds overweight, they need to do something about it," Green said.

Groups for the sessions are starting to form for the official Feb. 17 opening. Classes are held after school Monday through Thursday and from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the center, 2140 Eggert Road, Unit A, Amherst.

For information, visit online at www.weigh healthykidz.com, call 833-6190 or e-mail info@weigh healthkidz.com.