A shocking new study has revealed that young children are expressing concerns about their weight. The research shows that children who are as young as just 10 may be unhappy with their weight and want to shed a few pounds.
Unfortunately, young people do not always have the best understanding about safe weight loss and how to safeguard their wellness and wellbeing whilst losing weight with good diet and nutrition. Instead, the study indicated that many young people skip meals, such as breakfast or lunch, as a weight loss strategy.
Nearly two-thirds of the girls surveyed, who were in Year 10 (aged 14 and 15), claimed that they would like to be slimmer. Children between age 10 and 15 also admitted to skipping meals both at home and at school in an attempt to be slimmer.
The study spoke to 68,000 children and found that 63 percent of girls aged 14 and 15 and 54 percent of girls aged 12 and 13 said that they wanted to lose weight. Even younger than that, girls aged 10 and 11 told researchers that they wished they were slimmer.
In contrast, the study showed that boys appeared to be far less concerned about their weight. When the 14 and 15-year-old age category was spoken to, only around 29 percent of the boys said that they would like to lose some weight. Around 14 percent of this age group also claimed that they would actually like to put on some weight.
Researchers also questioned pupils about their diet and nutrition, asking them questions such as ‘what did you have for lunch?’ and ‘what do you normally have for breakfast?’
Around 17 percent of the girls and 11 percent of the boys said that they did not eat any breakfast on a regular basis, around double the number of children aged 11 and 12.