The more active you are, the more active your kids will be, thereby reducing their chances of becoming overweight or obese and developing related health conditions.
It’s the first time the connection has been measured between parents’ physical activity and their children’s.
New research by Statistics Canada suggests that a child’s level of physical activity rises by five to 10 minutes for every 20-minute increase in the physical activity of a parent.
Also for each additional hour of sedentary behaviour by a parent, like watching TV or playing video games, there was an eight- to 15-minute increase in the sedentary time of a child.
The agency adds that the associations held even after accounting for factors such as a child’s age, level of physical activity, hours of screen time and fruit and vegetable consumption, as well as the age and sex of the parent.