Written by: Bente Klarlund Pedersen, Nina Marie Birk Eriksen, Nina Majlund Harder-Lauridsen and Rikke Krogh Madsen

Fit for Kids is a multi-dimensional diet and activ­ity programme aimed at helping overweight and inactive children. The programme lasts for 40 weeks and consists of physical exercise, dietary advice and work on motivation. The aim of the quantitative evaluation was to assess the effects of the intervention on the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which is a group of factors associated with an increase in the incidence of cardiovascular diseases among children of early school age. The results show that after 20 weeks the children in the programme had lost weight and significantly reduced their BMI, waist circumference and body fat percentage, leading to improvements in their metabolic functioning, fitness levels and self-reported quality of life. The conclusion is that children who participate in the Fit for Kids programme become significantly more active, thus taking a step further away from developing the lifestyle illnesses from which they would otherwise be at risk.