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Kids'
Diets May Promote Weight Gain
Children who diet may actually gain weight in the long run,
perhaps because of metabolic changes but more likely because
they resort to binge eating, doctors report.
"Although medically supervised weight control may be
beneficial for overweight youths, our data suggest that
for many adolescents, dieting to control weight is not only
ineffective, it may actually promote weight gain,"
said the report from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
The study was based on a look at more than 16,000 U.S. boys
and girls age 9 to 14 from 1996 to 1998. It was published
in the October issue of "Pediatrics," the journal
of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The report found that about 30 percent of the girls and
16 percent of the boys were dieting to one degree or another
when the study began.
On the basis of questionnaires sent to the children, the
researchers found that although children who said they were
dieters reported being more active and getting fewer calories
than their peers, they gained more weight than non-dieters.
One girl in the study who was a frequent dieter gained about
2 pounds (1 kg) per year more than other girls her age who
were not dieting, the report said. In general, girls who
dieted less often gained slightly less weight, but still
more than non-dieters, it added.
Similar differences were observed among the boys.
The dieters could have gained more weight because their
metabolism became more efficient, requiring fewer calories
to maintain weight or become overweight.
A more likely reason, the report said, was that restrictive
diets are often not maintained for long periods and are
often followed by binge eating.
"In that scenario it would be the repeated cycles of
overeating between the restrictive diets that would be responsible
for weight gain," the study said.
The researchers suggested that young people and adults who
are not severely overweight should be encouraged to adopt
"a modest and therefore sustainable weight control
strategy that includes physical activity and does not require
severe restriction of total calories."
The number of overweight U.S. children is growing. In July
the National Center for Health Statistics said 15 percent
of children ages 6 to 18 were overweight in 2000, up from
6 percent in 1980.
Some 22 percent of black children and 25 percent of Mexican-American
children were overweight in 2000, the center said.
Article Source: Reuters Health
Article Author: N/A
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