How obesity drive can fuel teenagers’ weight worries

ANTI-OBESITY campaigns could be having a large impact on the mental health of teenagers, researchers believe.

A major study published last night shows at least 60 per cent of 14-yearolds have tried to lose weight – compared to 7 per cent three decades ago.

But researchers led by University College London warned efforts to reduce obesity could be having ‘unintended consequences’ – with teenagers overestimating their weight and experimenting with dieting, which could harm their mental health.

The team assessed data from 22,500 adolescents in the UK collected in 1986, 2005 and 2015. They found 60 per cent of 14-year- olds in 2015 said they had tried to exercise to lose weight, and 44 per cent had tried to diet. In 1986 only 7 per cent had exercised to lose weight, and 38 per cent had dieted.

Lead author Dr Francesca Solmi, whose study is published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, said: ‘Our findings show how the way we talk about weight, health and appearance can have profound impacts on young people’s mental health, and efforts to tackle rising obesity rates may have unintended consequences.

‘An increase in dieting among young people is concerning because experimental studies have found that dieting is generally ineffective in the long term at reducing body weight in adolescents, but can have greater impacts on mental health.’ She said the fitness industry and social media may also be causing harm.

Researcher Dr Praveetha Patalay said: ‘More adolescents seem to be thinking of exercise predominantly as a means to lose weight rather than exercising for fun, socialising and feeling healthy.

‘We suspect that recent controversial calls to add “exercise-equivalent” labels on food packaging may exacerbate this.’ The research shows girls have consistently been more likely than boys to diet to lose weight, but there has been a greater increase among boys over the years.

Boys are also becoming more likely to try to gain weight, the researchers said, which could be due to ‘lean muscular bodies’ being increasingly normalised. Both sexes were also more likely to overestimate their weight, which added to the researchers’ concerns that increased efforts to lose weight – which were linked with depressive symptoms – were not necessarily due to increased obesity rates.

Dr Solmi added: ‘Media portrayals of thinness, the rise of the fitness industry and the advent of social media may all partly explain our results, and public health messaging around calorie restriction and exercise might also be

‘May be causing unintended harm’

causing unintended harm.

‘Public health campaigns around obesity should consider adverse mental health effects, and ensure they avoid weight stigma.

‘By promoting health and wellbeing, as opposed to focusing on “healthy weight”, they could have positive effects on both mental and physical health.’

The researchers acknowledged that obesity rates have increased – with one in three children now overweight by the age of 11.