China’s boot camp for fat kids helps tackle its big obesity problem
Boot camps could offer remedy for the national headache of an estimated one in four Chinese children over the age of seven becoming obese within 10 years
In a big gym room on the outskirts of Hangzhou, 36 chubby children and teenagers listen carefully to passionate coaches who guide them through physical exercises aimed at reducing their bulges.
During the one-hour session, the youngsters sometimes crouch while holding heavy metal plates as they extend their arms. Sometimes they lie on cushions, lifting heavy sticks up and down; or they move up one leg, holding it with one hand while extending their other hand towards the ceiling.
Music is blaring, as at any other gym clubs, to stimulate the exercisers, who have already worked up major sweats, to keep them moving; coaches wearing microphones loudly encourage them to carry on.
Hou Ankun, a 16-year-old boy from Nanjing of Jiangsu, is the oldest and fattest among this group of trainees in weight-loss boot camp.
At 1.79m tall, Ankun is measured at 105kg – too heavy for ordinary people but representing progress for him since he weighed 120kg when he enrolled in camp three weeks ago.
“Being fat is really a big burden for me. I would feel tired from doing any small movement, such as just taking several steps,” he told the South China Morning Post.