The one thing you should never tell overweight teens

Telling overweight teenagers to go on a diet is most likely to make matters worse, according to a new US study on the subject.

University of Minnesota researchers have found that parents of overweight children tended to use only one strategy: advising them to diet. But five years later, those kids were far more likely to still be overweight than the teens whose parents had no idea they were fat and did nothing.

“Parents often don’t know whether their kids are a healthy weight.”

In short, it’s a technique that seems certain to backfire, said Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, a professor at the university and the lead author of the study.

“My concern is that if parents know their kids are overweight, they are going to do things that lead to further weight gain over time,” she said.

Neumark-Sztainer said she decided to research the issue because of the growing practice of schools evaluating kids’ weight and sending the results home to parents. It began because some parents often don’t know whether their kids are a healthy weight, and some experts believe telling them is one way to fight skyrocketing rates of childhood obesity.

Though many believe this practice to be highly controversial because it can be embarrassing and stigmatising to the adolescents.

For more information read the 100% People guide to Childhood Obesity