Nov 27, 2015 02:56 AM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Obese children are at risk for many serious health conditions that can be reduced with exercise; however, obese children rarely achieve recommended levels of activity.

Researchers at the University of Surrey found that both obese children and those with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) are not meeting the UK recommendations for a variety of vitamins and minerals. These children are also significantly far off meeting the recommended physical activity levels for children, which currently is 60 minutes five times a week.

"Rather than make new recommendations for obese children with NAFLD, our findings indicate that concerted efforts should be made to help children improve their current diet and activity patterns to achieve existing population guidelines," Dr. Bernadette Moore, lead author of the study, said in a statement. "It also appears that the diagnosis of liver disease changes children's behaviors to a degree. Our study showed that children with NAFLD exhibited more restrained eating behaviors and were more likely to engage in exercise than obese children without liver disease."

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from 24 obese children in the UK. Some of them had NAFLD and some of them were obese children who do not have liver disease.  

They found that children with liver disease were significantly more likely to be restrained eaters, suggesting that their diagnosis may have impacted on their eating behaviors. Children with liver disease took more steps per day. They also found that sedentary behaviors were particularly prevalent at the weekend across both groups highlighting the important contribution of school-related active travel and in-school activity to this age group

The findings further showed that excess weight is unlikely to be the only driving factor in NAFLD development with genetic susceptibility and ethnicity also likely to be implicated.

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