Study: Many Students Using Unhealthy Techniques to Lose Weight

Many high school students are using unhealthy weight loss techniques in order to lose weight, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also, many students who are at a healthy weight are still trying to shed pounds.

Researchers used data from the 1999 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey on 15,349 high school students to examine the link of physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and cigarette smoking with the weight management goals and practices.

Twenty-five percent of the students were either overweight (11 percent) or at risk for becoming overweight (14 percent). However, 43 percent of students were trying to lose weight and 19 percent of the students were trying to maintain their current weight, according to the study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Female students were less likely than male students to be overweight, but more likely to be trying to lose weight. Trying to lose weight was linked with vigorous physical activity, strengthening exercises, and cigarette smoking in the female students.

Vigorous physical activity, strengthening exercises and eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables were weight loss techniques most common among the male students.

Among students trying to lose weight or remain at the same weight, only 62 percent of females and 41 percent of males combined exercise with a reduced fat and calorie diet, while 32 percent of females and 17 percent of males used unhealthy weight control methods such as fasting, diet pills, vomiting or laxatives, according to the study.

"Efforts to promote healthy weight management among adolescents are needed and should place greater emphasis on combining physical activity with a reduced fat and calorie diet, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, and discouraging smoking and other unhealthy weight control practices," the researchers concluded.

Other sources: Journal of Adolescent Health