A new study has revealed that an increase in Physical Education lessons across schools and giving "exercise homework" might just end up improving children's fitness and body weight. The latest findings have come as an anti-thesis to the previous findings which suggested that it had no effect whatsoever.

A study carried out in Switzerland has discovered that children who are given more exercise time at school, in specific and dedicate lessons and all throughout the day, in addition to 10 minutes of exercise homework, were more fit and gained less weight as compared to others.

Previous studies have hinted that children generally do not indulge in any exercise because they are overweight, instead of them being overweight as they do now exercise.

For the sake of study, researchers compared and analyzed the health of children who were given extra exercise with those on standard three lessons per week exercise program. The study lasted for a total of one year, and it was discovered that those indulging in extra activity "could run the equivalent of 20 seconds faster, their body fat as measured by skinfold thickness was 2mm less and their body mass index improved".

Details of the study have been published in the British Medical Journal online.