
Fewer teens consider themselves overweight and more underestimate what they weigh, a perception concerning to experts worried about childhood obesity. These trends could reduce the effectiveness of public health interventions meant to help young people lose weight, researchers warn. Their findings were published July 3 in the journal Child and Adolescent Obesity. “Young people who underestimate their weight and therefore do not consider themselves to be overweight may not feel they need to lose excess weight and, as a result, they may make unhealthy lifestyle choices,” lead author Anouk Geraets said in a journal news release. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg. For the study, researchers reviewed 2002-2018 data involving more than 745,000 adolescents from 41 countries in Europe and North America. Information was collected at four-year intervals from kids who were 11, 13 and 15 years old. Over the period, underestimation of weight status increased for both boys and girls, but the trend was stronger for girls. Girls’ weight perception did get more accurate over time, however, but boys’ got worse. These changes in correct weight perception varied across countries. They could not be explained by an increase in country-level overweight/obesity prevalence. The authors noted that boys’ and girls’ body ideals may differ, which would explain why their perceptions differed. Body ideals have also changed over time, they pointed out.… read on > read on >