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Lockdown from COVID-19  didn’t turn out the way many people expected for a lot of reasons. Yes, it kept people away from others to decrease the spread.

However, it did not help in terms of of mental heath and physical heath. It has also been devastating on physical fitness.

Nearly one in three children and teenagers are either overweight or have obesity, a new report says..

Now, a recent study says that obesity among young people increased by 3% during pandemic lockdowns. Before the pandemic it was around 19% for school-age children. It rose over the lockdowns to 22%.

We spoke with heath teacher Mr. Hughes, who said he wasn’t surprised.

“Kids are much less active when they are not in school. Also, they’re more likely to eat more and less nutritious food,” he said. “To solve this problem we need to focus on physical  activity and heathy eating habits, and possibly reinforce kids with guidance from parents and teachers.”

Mr. Lovrich also said he wasn’t surprised. But he did not blame the pandemic.

“I think even without the pandemic this could have occurred,” he said. “Less and less kids actually play. Technology has played a big rule in that. Kids would rather be on phones, iPads or playing video games. Our job as PE teachers is to get our students to enjoy activity.”

The study, conducted by the CDC, examined the health records of more than 400,000 people aged 2-19.