Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Many Normal-Weight Teens Feel Fat

Pic of Teenage Girls Eating LunchI read an interesting article today about a recent German study that surveyed nearly 7,000 boys and girls (aged 11 to 17), asking them to describe their bodies.

Options included far too thin, a bit too thin, just the right weight, a bit too fat and far too fat.

The sad thing is half the normal-weight girls and a quarter of the normal-weight boys still described themselves as being too fat.

The findings have been published in the current issue of Deutsches Ă„rzteblatt International, a German medical journal.

Even though this is a German study, American teens and adolescents suffer with the same body image concerns. A 1999 study from the American Dietetic Association found that 55 percent of 7- to 12-year-old girls said they wanted to be thinner.

Read the complete article here.

Related Articles:
Stephanie Klein on her funny new memoir "Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp"
Study: Video Game Slows Weight Gain, Boosts Confidence


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4 comments:

HEALTH NUT WANNABEE MOM said...

It is alarming! I have two daughters and hope that they never feel the extreme pressure to be thin. I did and do and it can be a hard thing even when you know that you are thin but you sometimes feel you have to live up to an unrealistic standard. Great post!

Anonymous said...

Hey Heidi! I agree with you. It's tough because kids are bombarded by television, movies, internet, magazines (the list goes on and on).

On top of that, often the images are Photoshopped so what the kids are looking at is not even real.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately this kind of self image issue is not only prevalent in teens. My wife (30+) has been working out and dieting since she had our 2 kids and, although I think she looks great, and other people make the same comment, she often talks about how fat/ugly she is. Not sure what the answer is. Maybe I should pay her more compliments?

Anonymous said...

Hey, Nat. I wish I had a good answer for you but I'm no expert. Compliments are always appreciated so it sure couldn't hurt. The only other thing I would suggest is to have a sit-down talk with her and discuss these things. See if you can get to the root of the problem. She might be going through a bout of depression.

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