FIT & FUN LESS FAST FOOD, MORE EXERCISE IS THE MESSAGE - AND KIDS GET IT.

Byline: MELISSA HECKSCHER

>LA.COM

Fitness trainer John Moun stands before an antsy class of elementary school kids at Ivy Academia's gymnasium in Woodland Hills. It's the end of the school day, and he's trying to explain to them why they shouldn't eat sugar after 7 p.m.

"How many of you know what metabolism is?" he asks the shuffling crowd. A few kids raise their hands; most don't.

"How many of you have no idea?"

Legions of hands shoot up, and Moun explains.

It's a different sort of teaching than he's used to doing at his gym, Max Fitness Academy in Sherman Oaks, but he knows it's just as important -- if not more so.

"We want to get kids to understand how to properly eat," Moun said outside of class. "It's very important that the kids get in shape now, at this age, because it sets a foundation for the rest of their lives."

It's that foundation that Moun, along with a handful of other volunteers, is trying to instill in kids with the 15-week Drive Kids to Be Fit program, a nonprofit fitness class designed to supplement the traditional physical education program at local schools.

Founded by Max Fitness co-owner and personal trainer Max Hany Mikhail in response to the childhood obesity epidemic, the class is being offered at Ivy Academia and Lankershim Elementary School in North Hollywood.

In addition, low-income children can take a similar program for free at Max Fitness. Mikhail said he hopes to expand the program to other schools as the program gains more funding.

"We just want to do our part for the community," said Mikhail, 32, who has waged his own battle against obesity. "I was an overweight kid, myself. It was embarrassing."

But it wasn't just his problem. Mikhail's mother died of an obesity-related illness, and many of his family members had weight problems of their own.

"My nephew, at 10 years old, weighed 250 pounds, and all of his friends were overweight," Mikhail said. "I thought, 'We've got to do something about this.'

"The best way to get started," he added, "was to go to the schools."

And so he did.

Developing the program as a community partner with the National Institutes of Health's "WE CAN!" (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity and Nutrition) program, Mikhail wanted to make it more than just a gym class.

Besides getting exercise via push-ups, tag and dodgeball games, kids learn about nutrition, calories, metabolism, trans-fats and simple sugars. To gauge each child's progress, Body Mass Index and weight calculations are taken at the start and end of the 15-week period.

"We have one kid who's already lost at least 10 pounds," Mikhail said. "Kids (as opposed to adults) can make a big change right away. You can see changes on a weekly basis."

They're necessary changes.

According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly one out of every five kids in the U.S. is considered overweight. It's a problem many experts say starts at home.

Drive Kids to Be Fit is just one of a number of fitness programs throughout Los Angeles County aimed at giving children an extra boost toward a healthy lifestyle.

David Cain, owner of Buff Buddies Fitness in La Canada Flintridge, founded his center after finding gaps in exercise programs offered at his daughter's school.

"We're desperate -- if we don't do something, we're in big trouble," Cain said, referring to the fitness level of children in general. "I was so desperate to find something, I literally started this out of the trunk of my car with a bag of balls."

Buff Buddies has developed into a fitness center for children ages 2 to 12, aimed at building strength, confidence and courage through calesthenics, running, rock wall climbing, boxing with giant inflatable gloves and other activities.

"I wanted to make it fun -- that was the key," Cain said. "If it was fun, the kids would come back."

Cain said he also educates parents about healthy living as a way of helping their children. That's something Tatyana Berkovich, president and founder of Ivy Academia, does as well. And it's not just exercise, it's nutrition too.

"I don't know how many times I tell a parent, 'You can't put a pack of Oreos in a child's lunch box,'" said Berkovich. "Also, what's the fastest thing to do when you want to feed your child? McDonald's."

In fact, the average American child gets 10 percent of his total energy intake from fast foods, compared to 2 percent in the 1970s, according to the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools.

Of course, this is Southern California -- land of bikini-ready bodies and a Whole Foods Market for nearly every ZIP code -- so some kids already know this stuff.

Just ask Jo Morley, an Ivy Academia fourth-grader:

"I only eat sugar-free chocolate and organic apple juice and stuff," Morley chirped. "We got rid of sugar when I was 6, and I've never been to a fast-food place."

An energetic and bouncy blonde (you'd think she was on a sugar high if you didn't know better), Morley sounds perfectly happy to have given up the sweets and french-fry grease most kids crave.

"My neighbors, they were like, 'Let's go to McDonald's and get some ice cream,'" she said. "I was like, 'No, no, no. You can't go there."'

Melissa Heckscher, [phone], Ext.329;

[e-mail]

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) FIGHT FOR FITNESS

Kids are giving obesity the 1-2 punch

(2 -- 3 -- color) Above, children tackle the climbing wall at Buff Buddies Fitness. Near left, calisthenics in the Drive Kids to Be Fit class at Ivy Academia.

(4 -- 5 -- color) Near right, Brock Steele, 8, enjoys a round of bounce-house boxing at Buff Buddies Fitness in La Canada Flintridge. At center, students at Ivy Academia in Woodland Hills get in the sprinting spirit as part of the Drive Kids to Be Fit program.

PHOTOS BY JOHN McCOY>LA.COM

Box:

(1) Wonder if obesity has reached an alarming level in the U.S? Just consider the facts: (see text)

(2) Many people think fast food is cheaper than healthier food. But this isn't always true. (see text)

(3) no caption (list of gyms for children)