In terms of basal and resting metabolic rate, basal is the metabolic rate after complete bed rest and resting is the metabolic rate is during the day (Roberts, 2000; Steinbeck, 2001). These rates are the minimal amount of energy that the body uses when at rest but the basal metabolic rate is the most accurate because it is taken in a laboratory (Roberts, 2000). Dietary thermogenesis is energy used in the digestion process. This tends to increase the basal metabolic rate (Roberts, 2000; Steinbeck, 2001). Basal metabolic rate and dietary thermogenesis are the body’s way of using a small amount of energy.

     The major usage of energy in the human body is physical activity. When children are engaged in physical activity the body uses up significantly more energy than by the basal metabolic rate and dietary thermogenesis. However, the amount of energy used is dependent on how strenuous the activity is.

     The notion behind physical activity is that children need to use more energy than they acquire. When children eat food then they increase the energy acquired. For a child to be at risk of developing obesity the child must acquire more energy than they use, which would result in gaining weight. When this occurs over an extended period of time children will acquire excessive weight making them obese (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002). A considerably related factor to this is dietary intake.

Diet

     Children have had an astounding change in their diet. The portions they are eating are much larger which combined with other factors are making children much heavier (Cowely, Pedersen, Wingert, Weingarten, Cooper, Gesalman, & Gatland, 2000). This increase in the size of food portions contributes to the development of obesity if there is no way to equalize the increased energy that the body has consumed.

     In combination with bigger portions, children are eating very high calorie and high fat foods at a very early age. The food that children are eating is foods that are not home cooked but are processed goods from supermarkets and from fast food restaurants (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002; Cowley, et al., 2000). There is a relation to what environment a child is exposed to which will be covered later. Some foods that children are eating are “ready-to-eat cereals, potatoes, soft drinks, cakes and biscuits” (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002, p. 476). Along with these unhealthy foods, children are drinking excessive amounts of sugar-sweetened drinks Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002; Ludwig, Peterson, & Gortmaker, 2001). These drinks are high in glucose content, which is potential energy for the body.

     All of these trends in diet are very unhealthy for young children. Children are acquiring much more energy than they are using when they are having such unhealthy diets. When the energy acquired is more than the energy used, the excess energy is stored in the body as fat (Roberts, 2000). Diet is an important factor in a child’s behavior because the amount and choice of foods consumed by a child can greatly determine if obesity is likely in the child’s future.

Technology

     Technology is a very influential factor on children of today. The world has become a very technological world and although technology can benefit people, it can be a detriment as well. Children who have the potential for becoming obese, harmful technology are television, video game consoles, and computers. For children these days, these items are almost everyday items that they can engage with regularly.

     Television viewing in children has been known to cause obesity. This is because television viewing is one of the major causes of physical inactivity in children in this technological world. Children are watching a significant number of hours of television, which is taking away from time of being physically active. At the same time children are being influenced by the television in eating high fat foods because of advertising of this unhealthy food. (Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002; Drohan, 2002; Faith, Berman, Heo, Pietrobelli, Gallagher, Epstein, Eiden, & Allison, 2001; Lowry, Welchsler, Galuska, Fulton, & Kann, 2002).

     Because of television, video games are another factor in obesity because it too takes away from physical activity. In the home, children use video game consoles that provide entertainment through the use of a small portable computer, that plays the games, and a television set. There has been a movement away from physical activity to television, playing video games and also computers. This means that the usage of energy is decreasing in children’s lives, and with the type of diet that children are having these days, obesity is a likely health challenge to develop (Cowley et al., 2000; Ebbeling, Pawlak, & Ludwig, 2002; Drohan, 2002; Ridley & Olds, 2001).

     In video game centers children use up a lot of energy due to the fact that the games in video game centers involve a lot of body movement to operate a game. Games that children engage in are games like miniature basketball, shooting, games, simulation driving games, simulation BMX games etc. Some of these games involve vigorous movement in the upper body, lower body, forearms, and hands of children who play them and these games can last up to five minutes per game. Arcade centers seem to have no threat to children in developing obesity however, studies have shown, games that allow children to use up a lot of energy are not used as often as the games that do not use up a lot of a child’s energy in arcade centers (Ridley & Olds, 2001). When activities such as television, video games, and computers take away from other more vigorous children’s activities like outdoor play, obesity is a likely health challenge to arise in the future of affected children.

Sleep

     Although recently conducted, a research study has shown a behavior that is not congruent with other studies in this area. This study was conducted in Japan on Japanese children on the relationship between the amount of sleep and the development of childhood obesity. It was a study that was difficult to understand because short sleeping hours meant that there would be more time awake to perform daily activities. However, the quality of the time spent awake was significant in that even though the children stayed awake long they were more likely to be watching television. This means that the children were awake to do more but what they did with their time was not using up enough energy to use excess energy. Also, by staying awake for an extended period of time the children got less sleep making them more lethargic and less enthusiastic in the daytime to do physical activities. Another interesting discovery is that children, who do not get enough sleep, have decreased hormones that are secreted while they are asleep. These hormones help in processing fat during the night when an individual is not active (Sekine, Yamagami, Handa, Saito, Nanri, Kawaminami, Tokui, Yoshida, & Kagamimori, 2002).