Should schools be saying this?

Not being funny but were you there when they said it?

Is it not possible that something's got lost in translation as the story has been reported back to Mum?

I thought the whole "internally fat" thing had been made up by charlatan dieticians and personal trainers. The only time I'd heard it before this thread was when my ex wife went to see a specialised personal trainer/dietician a few years ago. He told her this was a big issue for her, but he could sort it out. Of course he could at around £50 an hour.

Oh, and she is 5'7" and at the time around 9st 7lb. Must have been quite sneaky internal fat.

xxnick1975":44kcelp3 said:

Not being funny but were you there when they said it?

Is it not possible that something's got lost in translation as the story has been reported back to Mum?

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There is always some possibility of that, not being there and al that. But I will add though that she is very good at remembering situations, when we've done things together and report back to say her dad it's always me that gets it mixed up and her that remembers it more accurately.

Alison

Tazio":7m5qcu20 said:

I thought the whole "internally fat" thing had been made up by charlatan dieticians and personal trainers. The only time I'd heard it before this thread was when my ex wife went to see a specialised personal trainer/dietician a few years ago. He told her this was a big issue for her, but he could sort it out. Of course he could at around £50 an hour.

Oh, and she is 5'7" and at the time around 9st 7lb. Must have been quite sneaky internal fat.

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I watched some program with Michael Moseley in which he had a scan of some kind to show the amount of fat he had around his organs, he was surprised by how much there was, I assumed they were thinking of this, although it couldn't weigh that much and she is young.

Alison

Disgusting.

13 year old girls are at the height of body awareness attendant to eating disorders, totally unforgivable to make personal assessments regarding body fat. If a child is clearly overweight there may be a case for a confidential discussion with the parents, but this is madness. I would be furious.

What medical qualifications does this staff member have? I mean, "internal fat". That's pretty good because fat is about 17% less dense than healthy lean tissue. And then the insensitive manner in which this 'diagnosis' was presented is breathtakingly bad.

You're right to be angry and I'd be challenging the school over it. I long for the good old days when schools actually used to teach pupils things, instead of wasting time on irrelevant rubbish like this.

They might be right, they might not.
There are lots of skinny/slender or light people with very high % body fat, usually caused by bad diet, lack of exercise and generally slobbing about. Look at supermodels for one, many of them have the body tone of a elastic band and are incredibly unhealthy.
On the flip side there are a lot of large/heavy people with very low % body fat, many rugby players, Chris Hoy and so on.
According to BMI, the first group are healthy, the second are obese.

Either way, the school has no way of detecting "internally stored fat" unless they send the kids off for lots of scans (expensive) and they shouldn't be delivering news of this type in this way.

mattr":1blssgjk said:

They might be right, they might not.
There are lots of skinny/slender or light people with very high % body fat, usually caused by bad diet, lack of exercise and generally slobbing about.

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Clipping a bit here but my daughter has an exceptionally healthy diet, well she's given one whether she eats it is another matter :roll: there are no cupboards fulls of crisps, biscuits and sugary drinks for them to munch on when getting home, I buy for three good meals a day and that's it. My daughter does enjoy a bit of time on the computer or XBox but loves going out for walks and going out on bikes, if that girl is hiding a high % of body fat I'm a Charlie's Angel. I don't think she's got anywhere to put body fat the girl's skin and bone, as I said she's 13 and her school skirts are for age 10 and they're loose.

But in the end no school should be making remarks to teens about fat wherever they think the child is hiding it.

Alison

And seventeenthly, the costs of doing this - who does it benefit? Wouldn't it be money better spent in actual programs, provision or resource for schools in terms of sports, activities, nutrition.

Gathering of stats might be an interesting footnote - it may be useful for possibly some in the scientific community, or some in political office - fine, if so, let them fund it. If this is coming out of the public purse, wouldn't the money / time resource be better used in actual action?

if what is reported is true, then as others have said, this is discgusting and needs taking up with the school. I would suggest taking it up with the school's Learning mentor who will be aware of working with child psychology issues and will be keen to do his/her best on these aspects.

medical checks will be carried out by the local authority's school nursing teams, who you would think are qualified, but certainly not by teachers (for those who think teachers should stick to teaching)

If we combat obesity with more PE or whatever, what would this be at the expense of? An hour's more PE, an hours less Maths? or extend the school day?

Maybe as someone has suggested, this was lost in translation. Maybe she misinterpreted what was said. Maybe a poor joke by the nurse was taken literally (certainly misguided if this was so) , who knows?

And maybe (and don't take this the wrong way) she is looking for a way out of eating (and all that goes with it) and saying this is that way out and hopefully gains your support.