Three years ago, statistics showed that more than one-third of children between the ages of five and 10 were overweight or obese and figures from 2001 revealed a quarter of children aged between 11 and 17 also fell into this category.

And according to Sarah Burrows, manager of the Diabetes Resource Centre and one of the organisers of the 100 Day Challenge and the Children's Wellness Programme, the figures have not improved. In fact she believes they have worsened with the trend having serious public health implications.

And Ms Burrows believes there are two causes – a diet of unhealthy foods or simply too much food and a lack of physical activity by many of the Island's children.

In the public school system children at primary level are required to have two sessions of at least 45 minutes per week of physical education, at the middle school level the mandate is twice a week for at least 40 minutes and at the senior level only students in their first year of senior school are required to take PE.

First year students at CedarBridge Academy and Berkeley Institute must pass a physical education course that meets four times a week for 50 minutes. The requirement is to pass this course in a semester – a length of about 15 weeks. After the course is passed, students can choose other physical education classes, join school athletic teams or not get involved in any other physical activities at school.

The introduction of the Children's Wellness Challenge by organisers of the 100 Day Challenge will see participating students commit to at least an hour of physical activity every day right up until the End-to-End Walk in May.

Ms Burrows feels strongly that increasing students physical activity is a healthy move. "I went to one school where I was told that children only have PE once a week," she said.

"And I've been told in some schools children can choose to take or not to take PE. Why is computer science or social studies more important than physical activity?" she asked.

And she noted that the Japanese had taken a firm stance to curb obesity, recognising its magnitude as a health risk by instituting maximum waist sizes for men and women. Local governments and companies face fines if their populations exceed these limits.

Last spring the Japanese city of Amagasaki passed legislation that required men to maintain a waistline not exceeding 33.5 ins and 35.4 ins for women. These figures were derived by the International Diabetes Federation specifically for Japan as being an easy guideline for identifying health risks.

Staff in Bermuda's schools readily admit that many children, even at the primary level are overweight or obese. Jay Tucker, Deputy Principal at Dalton B. Tucker Primary, has 15 students who are participating in the Children's Wellness Programme.

As the school's PE teacher oversees their activities and said he planned also to monitor what they eat for lunch. He admitted that some students in the programme and others in the school were overweight and that he encouraged them to be active and eat healthily.

At Mount Saint Agnes Academy, Director of Development Lisa Bardgett also admitted some students were overweight. "It has been part of the principal's initiative to get students more physically active this year," she said. "Within the three to four days of starting the programme it was amazing how many children had already surpassed the goal for the week and it's making other children more active," she added. "We feel that if it makes that one child who normally isn't active, move more, then it's a positive impact."