Parents Can Hinder Teen Weight Loss

Study Says Ditch Diet Talks And Just Make Healthy Choices Available

(WebMD)  Parents of overweight teens appear to be all talk and no action when it comes to helping their children reach and maintain a healthy weight, according to new research published in this week's issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Minneapolis-based researchers have found that parents need to "talk less and do more" when encouraging their kids to become fit and trim. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, PhD, MPH, RD, of the division of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota, and colleagues found that parents who correctly recognized that their child had a weight problem talked with their kids about dieting, but this was not helpful.

Previous studies have suggested that parents do not correctly recognize if their child is overweight. Furthermore, little research has been done to determine how parents act when they correctly perceive their child's weight status.

Neumark-Sztainer's team explored whether parents of overweight teens who correctly recognized their child's weight status engaged in behaviors that helped their child's long-term weight management.

The study involved overweight adolescents from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area who participated in Project EAT (Eating Among Teens) I and II in 1999 and 2004, respectively. The researchers learned that parents who recognized their children as overweight were more likely to encourage their children to diet, but they were not more likely to have better family meal practices, such as having readily available healthy food choices such as fruits and vegetables at home rather than candy, salty snacks, or soft drinks.

The percentages of adolescents who were overweight five years later were not statistically different between those whose parents recognized them as overweight and those that didn't. In fact, such parental encouragement backfired and predicted poorer weight outcomes such as increased weight gain, especially in girls.

Researchers say their findings underscore the importance of creating a healthy home environment for children.

"Accurate classification of child overweight status may not translate into helpful behaviors and may lead to unhealthy behaviors, such as encouragement to diet," Neumark-Sztainer writes in the journal article. "Instead of focusing on weight per se, it may be more helpful to direct efforts toward helping parents provide a home environment that supports healthful eating, physical activity , and well-being."

[grammawhamma]

If they would do a study to see if overweight kids had overweight parents...we all know what the end results would be. Most obese kids have obese parents. Rarely do you see an obese child who''s parents are trim and fit.

[rf35]

The fat-a.ss in that picture will never get laid looking like that.

[skinnyminny2]

All talk and no action is common with parents these days. They''re afraid to take any kind of corrective action with their kids and, with the issue of weight loss, they''d have to change their OWN habits and lifestyle to set a good example.

[lloydbest1]

Comments on the first three posts:
GrammaWhamma, you may be right in the broad sense, unfortunately, my family is one of the exceptions. At the not-too-lofty height of 5''8", I weigh in at slightly under 165. According to that execrable BMI standard, that makes me slightly overweight, but with a body fat composition of somewhere around 8 percent, I am anything but. My three children...Aw, that''s another story. The leanest of the bunch, all shorter than I, weighs around 198.
to rf35, It''s possible that her broad beam may underlie other problems; among them, an aversion to getting laid. You never know.
To skinnyminny2, Oh, there was plenty of action in my family! And I instigated most of it. Moreover it sorta kinda worked. My kids weighed at or close to standard limits during their childhoods. Kids do grow up, however, and at some point have to start making descisions governing their own lives. Their weights are a reflection of poor dietary and activity choices they have made since adulthood. The tragedy is they know better. At this point, their weights are stable and in my most obese child, actually coming down. There''s hope!