Body Fat

The Young-gon family has been hearing from others that they “look just fine.” But the results of their body fat exams from an obesity clinic were quite shocking.

The father of the family, Kim Yong-soo, 39, is 176 cm tall, weighs 80.8kg, and his Body Mass Index (BMI), an obesity index, is 26.1. In other words, he was slightly above 25, the standard considered average, and is a bit overweight.

Nevertheless, due to a lack of exercise, his body had more fat than necessary and less muscle than required. The body fat of a healthy adult is around 15 to 19 percent, but Kim’s body fat was twice that, or 32.6 percent. His body fat amounted to 26.3kg, excessive for his muscle weight of 30.7kg. His waist size of 94cm also meant serious abdominal obesity.

The mother is 160cm tall, weighs 60.4kg with an average BMI but again, the problem was with body fat: her body fat percentage was 31.6 percent.

Young-gon, 141cm tall and weighing 49kg, is within the average weight of his age group, but his body fat percentage was the highest. It amounted to 40 percent, and he had more body fat, 19.7kg, than muscle, which weighed only 13.8kg.

Little exercise, too much eating—

The bodies of the Young-gon family reflect their daily routines. After returning from school at 2:00 p.m., Young-gon has a snack for about 30 minutes and then goes to his private tutoring institution. He returns home at around 8:00 p.m. and after having dinner, goes to bed one or two hours later. Although generally it is recommended not to sleep within three hours of having a meal, his dinner is late because of his private tutoring. In addition, the only exercise he does is in gym class during school.

His mother said, “Before going to school, he engaged in swimming, and after going to elementary school, until third grade, he worked out at a taekwondo gym everyday for about an hour and half. He has been gaining serious weight after he became a fourth grader and does not work out.”

His eating habits of consuming almost no vegetables, including kimchi, and only eating greasy food, such as fried chicken skin, is also problematic.

His father who is cook director at the Shilla Hotel French restaurant, also lives a life that easily leads to weight gain. He dines at around 4:30 p.m. in order to prepare dinner, and after coming home about around 10:00, he has instant noodles as a snack. Since he spends the entire day with western food, he feels tempted by instant noodles. Furthermore, the bits of dishes that he consumes in order to taste them, is not low in calories.

After quitting her job, the mother gained weight and started aerobics in February, but often she fails to go to her classes even once a week. With Ga-young going to elementary school, she finds it difficult to spare time while she has to pick up and drop her children from school to private tutoring institutions.

Three-Month Project to Become a Healthy Family—

The most serious problem for Young-gon’s family was body fat rather than weight. With a family history of diabetes, their grandfather suffered from it, and it makes it more important to manage obesity.

Kangbuk Samsung Medical Center obesity clinic professor Park Yong-woo advised, “If there is little muscle, the energy that the body basically uses, or basic metabolism, is low, so when consuming the same amount as others, they will gain more weight. It is important for the family to increase their muscle mass through exercising.”

First they were advised to work out for about 30 minutes every morning with their son. Since they could become worn out with rigorous exercising, they were recommended to warm up for 10 minutes, run for another 10 minutes and walk for the remaining 10 minutes.

It was also suggested to reduce the most of fried chicken or pizza, which they consumed on average twice a week. They also decided not to buy junk food high in calories and trans fatty acids, which is unhealthy for the body.

On a stern warning from Professor Park that such unbalanced nutrition and muscles would impede height growth Young-gon told his mother, “I will not eat any more junk food. And get rid of the stuff we got yesterday”

Professor Park recommended to Young-gon, “Get used to foods such as tofu, beans, and eggs that will make you grow up, rather than foods such as ham, pork cutlet, ice cream, sodas that will make you grow sideways.”

Roh said, “Since we like sweet food, we often eat ice cream and put lots of sugar in anchovy broil and seasoned squid, but I will now change to a sugarless menu.”

Kim decided to eat vegetables and fruits low in calories, such as tomatoes instead of his usual instant noodles, for his night snacks.

Professor Park advised, “Mr. Kim should reduce his waist size by three inches in three months and quit drinking.” As for Young-gon, it was advised to change his eating habits and keep his weight while growing, since he was still at a growing stage.

The Young-gon family will visit the obesity clinic in another two weeks with their exercise and diet diaries in hand.

Na-Yeon Lee larosa@donga.com