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Educating the Student Body
Obesity: 
An excess amount of subcutaneous body 
fat in proportion to lean body mass. In 
adults a BMI of 30 or greater is considered 
obese. In this report, obesity in children 
and youth refers to age- and gender-specific 
BMIs that are equal to or greater than the 
95th percentile of the CDC’s BMI charts. 
In most children, these values are known 
to indicate elevated body fat and to reflect 
the comorbidities associated with excessive 
body fatness. 
Overweight: 
In children and youth, BMI is used to assess 
underweight, overweight, and risk for over-
weight. Children’s body fatness changes over 
the years as they grow. Girls and boys differ 
in their body fat as they mature; thus, BMI 
for children, also referred to as BMI-for-age-
and-for-sex, is gender and age specific. BMI-for-
age is plotted on age- and gender-specific 
BMI charts for children and teens aged 2-20 
years. According to the CDC, overweight is 
defined as BMI-for-age-and-for-sex equal to 
or greater than the 85th percentile.
Pandemic: 
Prevalent over the whole country or the 
world.
Physical activity:
Bodily movement that increases energy 
expenditure.
Physical activity breaks:
Opportunities for physical activity provided 
briefly throughout the school day, such as 
during morning announcements.
Physical education:
A planned sequential K-12 standards-
based program of curricula and instruction 
designed to develop the motor skills, knowl-
edge, and behaviors of healthy active living, 
physical fitness, sportsmanship, self-efficacy, 
and emotional intelligence.

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Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School
Appendix A
 
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Physical fitness:
A set of physiologic attributes that are either 
health related or skill related. Physical fitness 
is an adaptive physiologic state that varies 
with growth and maturity status and physi-
cal activity.
Physical inactivity:
A lifestyle comprised exclusively of seden-
tary and light-intensity physical activities 
(
≤
3 METs). Also commonly used to refer to 
individuals who do not perform the recom-
mended volume of vigorous- or moderate- 
intensity physical activity.
Policy: 
A written statement reflecting a plan or 
course of action by a government, business, 
community, or institution that is intended to 
influence and guide decision making. For a 
government a policy may consist of a law, 
regulation, ordinance, executive order, or 
resolution. 
Power:
A skill-related component of physical fitness 
that relates to the rate at which an individual 
can perform work.
Prevalence: 
The number of instances of a condition or 
disease in a population at a designated peri-
od of time, usually expressed as a percentage 
of the total population. 
Program: 
An integrated set of planned strategies and 
activities that support clearly stated goals 
and objectives designed to lead to desirable 
changes and improvements in the well-being 
of people, institutions, environments, or all 
of these.
Recess:
Regularly scheduled periods within the 
school day for supervised physical activity 
and play.
Resistance training:
Training designed primarily to increase 
muscle strength, power, and endurance.

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Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School
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