“Focus on Strength; Design, Development, Production, Implementation and Evaluation of an Overweight Prevention Program”

Keywords: children, obesity, prevention, strength training

Obesity prevention in children usually focusses on body weight (BMI), which means: eat less, exercise more. This dissertation advocates a different approach, namely strength training. Strength training increases fat-free mass, which results in an improved body composition and health status. Another advantage of this approach is that it is more suitable for obese children. Physical education of lower MBO/HAVO (senior secondary vocational education/higher general secondary education) classes participating in the study included strength training and motivational lessons. Compared to control schools, children attending the participating schools showed an improved body composition and increased after-school exercise behaviour after following the programme. Therefore, it is recommended that strength training is made an integral part of physical education.