LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- About one in three children in California are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, according to statistics published on Friday.

    There are even more overweight children in the Los Angeles County, which comprises 88 sattelite cities.

    The number of overweight children in the county is about 3 percent higher than the rest of California, and nearly doubles the national rate, said the Blue Cross of California, a health insurance company.

    About 80 percent of obese children will continue to be obese into adulthood, said the company, which has launched exercise programs to deliver messages about nutrition and physical activity to children at a younger age.

    These messages will help keep healthy starting now and down the road, said Brian Sassi, president of Blue Cross of California.

    In an effort to fight the rising trend of childhood obesity, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa led an exercise routine on Friday for seventh-graders at Markham Middle School in Watts, in downtown Los Angeles.

    Of the Markham seventh graders tested last year, 12.3 percent met all six standards on the state's physical fitness test, compared to 29.6 percent of the seventh-graders tested statewide, according to the California Department of Education.

    Villaraigosa's workout was part of the "Live Like a Champion" outreach tour sponsored by Blue Cross of California and the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

    "We owe it to ourselves and our children to spread the message far and wide that physical fitness leads to overall success in life, " Villaraigosa said.

    "We know that physical fitness not only reduces diabetes and heart disease, but it also leads to greater academic success for our children."