Essay Sample: Link between Physical Education and Healthy Weight among Students
Publication Date:
Introduction
Physical education for students can not only teach them lifelong healthy behavior, but it also works like medicine in the long run. Around 70 percent of college students in American gain weight between their matriculation and graduation (Gropper, Simmons, Connell, & Ulrich, 2012, p. 1118-1119). Students tend to gain weight, as the stress of performing and academic responsibilities fuel their late-night snacking, a lack of exercise, and fattening dorm meals. Some studies have pointed out that around 22 percent of college students are overweight upon college matriculation, and 12 percent are obese (Lynch, Hayes, Napolitano, & Hufnagel, 2016, p. e29). As a result, weight management becomes a critical problem for students, especially in the case of overweight and obese students that are already facing the risk of adverse psychosocial and health outcomes. Due to the health and psychological risks associated with obesity and overweightness among students, the importance of physical education as a measure to maintain healthy weight becomes additionally relevant. The following arguments would analyze how physical education is a superior alternative for healthy weight management among students that nutrition education and healthy eating.
Supporting Argument
Calorie Management
The importance of physical education in America’s schools and colleges has increased with time, as there has been a decline in the physical activities performed by students. For instance, around 40 percent of American schoolchildren used to ride their bikes or walked to school in the 1960s, but in 2001 the number declined to only 13 percent (McDonald, 2007, p. 509). Moreover, there is an increase in the sedentary activity of students, as they prefer playing video games, watching television, and using laptops over playground activities and sports. Add these behaviors together, and it becomes clear that there is a desperate need for students to get involved in regular physical activity to overcome the energy imbalance that leads them towards obesity and overweightness.
Physical activity is linked with combating weight issues such as obesity and overweightness among students, as it helps in calorie management. Obesity or overweightness among students results from the development of energy imbalance, which happens due to calories intake being much higher than calories burned. The resulting energy imbalance creates further issues in the case of students who follow a sedentary lifestyle, which leads to overweightness or obesity. Several factors are behind the number of calories people burn every year, which includes body sizes, genes, age, etc. Among these factors, one variable factor that student can modify themselves is the amount of physical activity they indulge in regularly. Therefore, keeping active is useful for students to not only stay healthy and active but also for providing them with the opportunity to maintain a healthy weight or lose weight.
Muscle Strengthening and Weight Management
Physical education also pushes several students towards working out in gymnasiums and building muscle mass and quality as a means to manage their weight and maintain their health. Some of the activities, such as weight lifting, crunches, push-ups, and several other muscle-strengthening exercises, can be learned from physical education. These activities help students to build muscle quality that increases the level of energy their body burns all day, even when they are resting. As a result, good muscle quality among students can help them manage and control their weight. Few studies have focused on evaluating the importance of muscle mass, function, and quality in students who face obesity, and most of them show that obesity is related with poor muscle quality that adversely impacts their muscle function. Therefore, improving muscle quality is essential for students, which is possible when they understand how their body works through physical education (Cava, Yeat, & Mittendorfer, 2017, p. 511).
Management of BMI
Physical education also encourages students to maintain their fitness through interventions that target weight status outcomes such as the BMI (Body Mass Index). For instance, physical activity has the capability of decreasing fat around the waistline and overall body fat, which slows the growth of abdominal obesity and improves BMI. Studies have shown that around thirty-minutes of daily exercise can be work as a scientific means to ameliorate adverse health outcomes among students, especially females who are at a higher risk of increasing their BMI. Erfle and Gamble (2015) carried out an investigation that supported the use of physical activity for improving the behavioral risk factors that are linked with obesity among students (p. 27). Improvements on the BMI percentile of at-risk youth such as women or overweight individuals are presaged by making improvements in the level of physical fitness.
Fasten up the Metabolism
Metabolism is used to determine all activities that the body naturally does to convert food consumed into energy and keeps students active. Some students with a good understanding of physical education end up having a faster metabolism, which means their body converts food into energy at a faster rate than obese or overweight students. Exercise is essential for students as due to sedentary activity, and stress associated with education, the speed of losing muscle mass increases, which ends up slowing down the metabolism rate. The most effective way for stalling his metabolic decline is to start working out, as it can fasten the metabolic speed and ensure weight management becomes easier for students. For maintaining their metabolism rate, students should amp up their workout regime and include exercises such as aerobics, cardio, etc., as they can help in balancing the caloric imbalance (WebMD, 2017). Therefore, workout sessions have the capability of speeding up the metabolism rate among students and helping them manage their weight.
Psychological Impact
Physical activity also helps to reduce the anxiety and depression associated with a student’s life and anxiety, and the boost in their mood can help to motivate them and remain loyal to their exercise regime over time. Several studies have analyzed the relationship between depression or anxiety and physical activity, and their results point out that through regular physical activity, symptoms of anxiety and depression can be eased. The lifting of these negative emotions motivates people and makes them feel better. Through regular physical activity, students can release natural cannabis-type brain chemicals such as endogenous cannabinoids, feel-good endorphins, and several other brain chemicals, which enhance their sense of well-being. Also, physical activity helps students to take the mind off their worries and helps them escape the cycle of negative emotions that feed anxiety and depression (Mayo Clinic, 2017).
Opposing Argument
Nutritional Education
Even though several social campaigns and college programs claim that they focus on placing emphasis on learning and meeting nutritional needs to students for maintaining optimal weight levels, it is clear that significant number neglect these instructions are fall prey to unhealthy food choices. Several factors influence the poor nutritional choices of students in college, as many of them depart their parental home for their first time, struggle to adapt to the changes in their environment, build several social networks, acknowledge new fiscal responsibilities, and experience limitations in their time availability. Therefore, the necessity of meeting nutritional needs is often missed out by students, as they are more focused on combating other issues that face in college life. Studies show that it is advantageous for students to develop good eating habits, which can lead them to maintain a healthy weight without undertaking the extraneous physical activity (Abraham, Noriega, & Shin, 2018, p. 13-17).
Some studies have pointed out nutritional education as an alternative to physical education for students to maintain a healthy weight. Most college students across American transition from home-based living to college life, and in such scenario, their nutritional knowledge becomes critical as their food options decline, and dietary challenges are enhanced. Traditionally, students based on campus are forced to use college dining facilities for their meals. In most cases, these facilities provide a variety of unhealthy food choices, which increases the possibility of students gaining weight. Studies have shown that college students can gain around 4-9 pounds within the first two years of attending, which happens as they make poor nutritional choices. Also, students that fail to attain an adequate level of nutrition daily, it can lead to a decrease in their physical and academic performance (Abraham, Noriega, & Shin, 2018, p. 13-17).
Good Eating Habits
Maintaining a healthy weight is also a challenge for student across America, as they develop poor eating habits. Some studies have shown that due to availability of unhealthy food options in school or college canteen and vending machines, there are several interventions available that can halt healthy weight management among students (Abraham, Noriega, & Shin, 2018, p. 13-17). As a result, struggle in the transition of students from parental oversight to college life causes them to make several significant changes in their dietary options, which are associated with their weight gain between their matriculation and graduation. Unless students understand the relevance of good eating habits, it would be irrelevant for them to partake in regular physical activity as they would regain their energy burned with the high-calorie food from the canteen or vending machines.
Several students tend to select food as per their convenience, time, price, and taste, and overlook the nutritional values of their food intake. The preference for tasty and quick food options is high among students, as they can access them from vending machines or canteen at affordable prices and with limited effort. These problems are developing poor eating habits among students, as they struggle to overcome the ease of access and affordability interventions associated with unhealthy food. Without access to nutritional food choices, students tend to start gaining weight and struggle to cope with a slowed metabolism and reduced muscle quality. As a result, several students are doomed to gain weight in college, and without knowledge of good eating habits and control over their dietary choices, it can be challenging to maintain healthy body weight.
Personal Opinion
Most schools and colleges across America are filled with several interventions that hinder the ability of students to protect them from making unhealthy food choices. Several students slip and give preference to convenience, taste, and affordability over nutritional needs. At the same time, nutritional knowledge is necessary, but it does not assure students would not be able to overcome their depression and stress that is associated with college life. It is essential that students should be provided physical education that can help them overcome several interventions associated with academic life and provide them knowledge about using physical activity as a means to control their weight. As a result, the presence of several unhealthy food interventions and lack of nutritional education in the schools and colleges across America means, the importance of physical education in maintaining healthy weight among students becomes critically important. Therefore, when it comes to choosing one side, it is clear that physical education is the most effective means to prepare students towards maintaining a healthy weight.
Conclusion
Physical education focuses on providing students with an opportunity to learn about the activities and behaviors that can help them manage their weight and prepare them for the challenges associated with academic life. There are several ways physical education contributes towards the maintenance of healthy weight among students such as maintaining of calorie management, muscle strengthening, and weight management, BMI management, fasten up the metabolism, and psychological impact. In combination, physical education is associated with several advantages that are helpful for students to understand and apply activities focused on healthy weight management. In contrast, nutritional education and good eating habits help maintain healthy weight among students, but in comparison to physical education, it does not provide equally beneficial opportunities to students for weight management and comes with several risks. Also, they can be used as an extension of physical activity, as obese and overweight students cannot manage their weight with only nutritional education and good eating habits. Overall, it is evident that for students to maintain a healthy weight, physical education is more effective than alternatives such as nutritional education and good eating habits.
References
Abraham, S., Noriega, B. R., & Shin, J. Y. (2018). College students eating habits and knowledge of nutritional requirements. Journal of Nutrition and Human Health, 2(1), 13-17.
Cava, E., Yeat, N. C., & Mittendorfer, B. (2017). Preserving Healthy Muscle during Weight Loss. Advances in Nutrition: An International Review Journal, 8(3), 511-519. doi:10.3945/an.116.014506
Erfle, S. E., & Gamble, A. (2015). Effects of Daily Physical Education on Physical Fitness and Weight Status in Middle School Adolescents. Journal of School Health, 85(1), 27-35. doi:10.1111/josh.12217
Gropper, S. S., Simmons, K. P., Connell, L. J., & Ulrich, P. V. (2012). Changes in body weight, composition, and shape: a 4-year study of college students. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 37(6), 1118-1123. doi:10.1139/h2012-139
Lynch, S., Hayes, S., Napolitano, M., & Hufnagel, K. (2016). Availability and Accessibility of Student-Specific Weight Loss Programs and Other Risk Prevention Health Services on College Campuses. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 2(1), e29. doi:10.2196/publichealth.5166
Mayo Clinic. (2017, September 27). Depression and anxiety: Exercise eases symptoms. Retrieved June 16, 2019, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/depression-and-exercise/art-20046495
McDonald, N. (2007). Active Transportation to SchoolTrends Among U.S. Schoolchildren, 1969–2001. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32(6), 509-516. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2007.02.022
WebMD. (2017). How to Boost Your Metabolism With Exercise. Retrieved June 16, 2019, from https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/how-to-boost-your-metabolism