Teasing can wear down people and make them feel insecure

New studies done at the University of Minnesota in America suggest that rather than getting worked up and stressed about the weight of your children you should just learn to relax and cook regular healthy meals for them. The researchers claim that trying to put your children on a diet will not necessarily help and nor will frequent teasing about their body weight. They said that mothers and fathers should put an emphasis on having a healthy and positive atmosphere at home and making sure that some sort of physical activity is built into the day. They also said that parents must build the self esteem of their children rather then berating them about their weight.

In all over two and a half thousand teenagers were examined over a five year period and the researchers saw that destructive diet behaviour is very prevalent among teenagers who are overweight as well as among teenagers who are too thin. They noticed that the attitudes and perceptions that teenagers have of their bodies can influence them a lot in the way that they deal with their weight. They said that they had come across hundreds of cases of teenagers misusing laxative medicine and forcing themselves to vomit in order to shed weight. The researchers said that teenagers who relied on destructive habits like these for weight loss would most likely put on weight in the long term and become overweight.

One of the most fascinating bits of research that came out of the study was that teenage girls who reported that they had been teased about their excess weight were twice as likely to be overweight after a five year period when compared to the girls in the study who were not teased about their excess weight. The girls who were teased were also far more likely to resort to unhealthy weight loss practices and also to go on eating binges.

At Ukmedix News we have seen hundreds of different research projects on weight loss and diet and there’s no question about the fact that weight loss and healthy eating is just as much a mental hurdle as it is a physical challenge. People who lose weight tend to be those who can face facts and be honest with themselves and these people also are often those who have a high self esteem and confidence about their abilities to achieve goals.

Teasing can wear down people and make them feel insecure about themselves which can cause then to have difficulty in facing reality and thus they carry on eating unhealthily and too much. At Ukmedix News we know that many people who have weight problems also have self esteem issues which must be considered at the same time as making a concerted effort to lose weight.