Survey finds over 60% of clinically obese women began dieting before 14
Thursday, 10-Jun-2004, by News-Medical
A University of California, Berkeley-led survey of women defined as clinically obese shows that nearly two-thirds of them went on their first diet before age 14 and, as adults, were more likely to be heavier than women who started dieting after age 14.
The survey, published in this month's issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, also found that those who started dieting before age 14 were more than twice as likely to have dieted more than 20 times when compared with women who began dieting later in life.
Respondents said they tried a range of dieting techniques, from hypnotism to low-calorie diets to commercial weight loss programs, in their lifelong attempts to lose weight. Some women surveyed were even prescribed amphetamines, a common treatment for weight loss in the 1960s and early '70s.
"These findings should counter the popular myth that fat people are lazy gluttons, and that they've never made an effort to manage their weight," said Joanne Ikeda, co-director of UC Berkeley's Center for Weight & Health and lead author of the study.
She added that there is "growing evidence that repeated dieting adversely affects the body's metabolism, and that dieting before puberty disrupts the body's normal development."
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Thursday, 10-Jun-2004, by News-Medical
A University of California, Berkeley-led survey of women defined as clinically obese shows that nearly two-thirds of them went on their first diet before age 14 and, as adults, were more likely to be heavier than women who started dieting after age 14.
The survey, published in this month's issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, also found that those who started dieting before age 14 were more than twice as likely to have dieted more than 20 times when compared with women who began dieting later in life.
Respondents said they tried a range of dieting techniques, from hypnotism to low-calorie diets to commercial weight loss programs, in their lifelong attempts to lose weight. Some women surveyed were even prescribed amphetamines, a common treatment for weight loss in the 1960s and early '70s.
"These findings should counter the popular myth that fat people are lazy gluttons, and that they've never made an effort to manage their weight," said Joanne Ikeda, co-director of UC Berkeley's Center for Weight & Health and lead author of the study.
She added that there is "growing evidence that repeated dieting adversely affects the body's metabolism, and that dieting before puberty disrupts the body's normal development."
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