February marked five years since the start of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign to try and stifle the obesity epidemic in the U.S.
CCTV America’s Roza Kazan filed this report from Chicago.

U.S. obesity levels are surging and efforts to drive them down aren’t working fast enough. Lannette Wolford calls herself a warrior in the battle against obesity. After struggling with her own weight as a child, she is teaching physical education classes in Chicago to preschoolers as part of a fitness movement she is a part of. Her goal is to prevent obesity before it even begins and she believes it starts with children as young as two.

“We don’t want to unlearn bad habits, we want to teach healthy habits from day one, we want to teach them from the day that they can walk,” Wolford, who is a member of KID-FIT Chicago and Youth Fitness Consultants, Inc. said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in the past 30 years, obesity in the United States has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents. 17 percent, or nearly 13 million children, between the ages of 2 and 19, are obese.

Almost one in eight preschoolers, ages 2-5, in the United States is obese. Statistics show preschoolers who are obese are five times more likely to become obese as adults than normal-weight children their age.

The government said childhood obesity is highest among children in families with low incomes.

“They are trying to stretch that dollar – so they tend to buy less healthy food, so they buy pre-packaged, processed food, so they can make that dollar stretch,” Wolford said.

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Trainer Corey Belin explains societal factors of obesity

CCTV America’s Elaine Reyes interviewed Washington, D.C. based personal trainer Corey Belin. He discussed the U.S. obesity rates, how society is contributing to obesity rates and common diseases where obesity could be linked to.