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Morgan Lenamon
Professor Collins
ENGL 1302

Obesity
Many people consider obesity as someone simply weighing too many pounds. This
statement is false however. As Medline Plus puts it in their article, obesity is the excess amount
of fat that is held within somebodies body (Medline Plus).With technology becoming more
advanced, teenagers are sitting around and doing nothing physical to keep in shape. This is
causing a huge increase in fat in a humans body. Another cause of the rise in obesity is the
increasing amount of fast food chains that are being built around heavily populated areas.
Teenagers are finding it more convenient to go through a drive through rather than actually
Cooking something healthier for themselves. Obesity causes many health defects including an
Increase in risk of a heart attack. It seems as though the United States has turned their backs on
obesity. The National institute of Diabetes wrote a research article on obesity in which they
stated, More than two in three adults are considered to be overweight or obese (Medline Plus).
The evidence in this article proves that obesity is an enormous problem in the United States. As
more children and adults become obese, there is going to be a lack of blue collar work force and
an increase in desk jobs. This presents the problem of not being able to expand and
industrializing the United States. If obesity keeps rising as it has been, the economy itself might
start to decline. Not only does obesity make people lazy, but obesity causes an increase in many
different health risks. These health risks include type two diabetes, heart attacks, and stroke. All

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of these risks can lead to death as well. The United States should implement a four year
requirement of a physical education class in high school because it would drastically decrease the
amount of obese teenagers.
As obesity rises, solutions seem to become scarce. There has been many attempts at
solving the problem of obesity such as implementing healthier options in school lunch, and
encouraging young teenagers to go out and exercise at least an hour a day. The main problem
with all of these solutions is that if teens do not want to eat healthy, or exercise then they simply
will not. Even if the parents of these children encourages them, it is still up to the teen to go out
and actually run or play a sport. Now with technology rising, young adults have better and more
enjoyable things to do sitting on a couch, than going outside and participating in physical
activity. These factors are what is causing such an increase in obesity over the years. The
UXL encyclopedia wrote a research paper over obesity stating, "In 1961, the average number of
calories available to a person in the U.S. was between 2,600 and 2,800. By the 2000s, each
person had over 3,600 calories a day" (Obesity). The amount of calories being available to the
people has increased an incredible amount, and with the people becoming more vulnerable to
laziness, the amount of overweight people will continue to increase. So something has to change,
and with the new generation growing up, the best option is to stop obesity in high school.
By implementing a four year requirement of a physical education class, the United States will see
a decrease in obesity among teenagers.
There are, however, multiple steps in which to implement this new requirement.
Depending on the amount of states that are willing to join the campaign, the law might have to
go through the United States congress. Before one brings a new law to congress he needs to have

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a surplus of schools that agree with the law. Getting schools to back a new idea can be a hard
task. The only reason a school will agree to a new requirement would be if a speaker came to the
school and listed out all the pros and cons of implementing the new law, but that would be way
too many schools for a speaker to go to. So instead of a speaker going to the schools, there can
be a video sent put to every school that has a speaker promoting the law. By a speaker listing out
all of the pros to implementing the four year requirement for a physical education class, a school
is going to be more likely to want this new law to be passed and is going to support you. The
schools have to understand the risks of having obese kids in the school, and by stating a new law
that will help decrease the amount of over weight teens in school will further help get the schools
to help the law be passed.
Before a person puts forth a law in front of congress. He must first have a thoughtful and
well planned out way of executing this proposal. With making a class required for all four years
can bring about some difficulties. First, the requirement will have to start by only making the
incoming freshman take the class. That way there are no juniors or seniors having to
take summer school classes in order to obtain the credits that they need. By starting with the
newly introduced freshman, the requirement will run smoother and more efficient. Depending on
the population of the schools student base, the school might be forced to create two gyms where
this class can be held. Another option to this problem is to create multiple classes with double the
amount of students. This way one day half the students will participate outside, while the other
half will do activities inside. This solution however, would require multiple coaches to teach the
classes. These coaches must be able to help the children in need as well. The coaches must be
able to educate the students on how to eat right, as well as the proper exercises. Providing classes
for these coaches to learn more about health will also help out because by the coaches being

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more educated on how to eat right, the teenagers will be getting the education as well. Not only
should this class consist of physical activity, but certain days throughout the week should
be specifically based on educating the teenagers about how to lose weight and eat the proper
nutrients in a days diet. Providing this class can have an abundance of perks as well. A main
reason for teenagers not being active is the lack of motivation that they have. This class can
provide that motivation but giving the option for kids to weigh themselves and write a goal
weight that they would like to achieve. The student should be able to have a one on one
conversation with their coach about goals, and problems that the teenager might have in making
that goal successful. By providing an adult to talk to, the students will have no other reason than
to keep on the right trach to losing weight.
The goal of this physical education class would be mainly geared toward motivating
teenagers to lose weight and live a healthier life style. To succeed in this goal, one must first give
the proper motivation to succeed. One idea that would be the finest would be to grade the teens
on how successful they are for the goal of a particular day. For example, if the goal of a certain
day is to complete a mile, either walking or running, the teenager must complete this mile in
order to receive a one hundred for that day. The standard class period is forty five minutes, which
is more than enough time to complete a mile no matter how slow you walk. If a student fails to
complete this then they will either have to finish the mile after school, or take a lower grade for
that day. On days when the students are educating themselves on how to live a healthier life, the
end of the class should consist of a written, small essay that includes things such as, how they are
going to eat healthier, what they eat on a daily basis that is not healthy for them, or the
main topics that the learned in that class period. By making the teenagers write this down, it will

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make them more aware of the risks of eating bad and will also motivate them to strive for
a healthier eating style.
There have been multiple precautions in the past to try and stop obesity in the high
schools. One of which is in full effect to this day. Michelle Obama and the United States
department of agriculture have made a policy that has placed healthier lunches in the school
lunch rooms (School Meals). This new policy has yet to succeed because of the many flaws that
it consists of. One of the biggest flaws that comes with this new policy is that children around the
world usually eat only one meal at school. Therefore making the meals healthier is only going to
take up for one meal in the teens diet, the rest of what the students eat on a day to day basis can
still consist of un-healthy foods. Another flaw that this new policy has, is the fact that teenagers
could simply bring their own lunch to class if they wanted to. Some schools allow off campus
lunches, which means that the kids can leave the school and go get whatever they want to. So in
reality the schools are not helping the students as much as they potentially could. These two main
flaws I this policy proves that schools must take better precautions in order to decrease the
obesity rate.
Obesity is not only the weight of a person, but the amount of body fat that one person
contains. As the obesity rate continues to rise, the need for a solutions becomes more urgent.
Many solutions have been tried, and many have failed. If student are required to take four years
of a physical education class, the obesity rate is sure to decrease rapidly throughout the future.
By providing students with a coach that knows about health and fitness, the teens will be able to
talk to them for tips and better ways of exercising so that they can lose the unwanted fat that they
might have. This will create not only healthier teenagers, but also happier teenagers in the future.

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Works Cited
Butland, Bryon, et al. "Foresight. Tackling obesities: future choices. Project report." Foresight.
Tackling obesities: future choices. Project report (2007).
National Survey of US Primary Care Physicians Perspectives about Causes of Obesity and
Solutions to Improve Care. Bleich Et Al. 2 (6). N.P., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2016
"Obesity: MedlinePlus." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine,
n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
"Obesity." UXL Encyclopedia of Science. Ed. Amy Hackney Blackwell and Elizabeth Manar. 3rd
ed. Farmington Hills, MI: UXL, 2015. Student Resources in Context. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
Prsic Elizabeth, et al. Cancer and Obesity in Rhode Island. Rhode Island Medical Journal 99.4
(2016): 16- 19. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2016
Robinson, Thomas N., and John R. Sirard. "Preventing childhood obesity: a solution-oriented
research paradigm." American journal of preventive medicine 28.2 (2005): 194-201.
School Meals. Nutrition Standards for. N.P., n.d Web. 13 April 2016.