Michelle Obama has earned her family another place in history. This time, Mrs. Obama will share the honor with more than 300,000 other participants on Sunday who set the record for most people doing jumping jacks in a 24-hour period.
The previous world record was just 20,000.
In a video from the White House, Mrs. Obama thanked National Geographic Kids and the Guinness Book of World Records, who helped organize the event as part of Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative to promote physical fitness and healthy eating for children. She also said she hopes that physical fitness will be a priority for the kids who participated.
“More than anything, I want to say, thanks to every single young person who showed that exercise isn’t just good for you, but that it’s fun too,” Mrs. Obama said.
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The Let’s Move website notes that “Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. The numbers are even higher in African American and Hispanic communities, where nearly 40 percent of the children are overweight or obese.”
The simple movement of jumping your feet apart and clapping your hands overhead and then jumping your feet back and lowering your arms can burn about 585 calories an hour for a 160 pound person, reports Health Status. If you weigh 200 pounds, calorie-burning increases to 732 calories an hour. A person who weighs 240 pounds burns about 878 calories an hour with jumping jacks. This means as you lose weight, you’ll need to work harder to burn calories.
Mrs. Obama led about 400 kids from elementary and middle schools in the Washington area on the South Lawn of the White House. Other jumping jack events were held around the world to reach the world-record mark.
