Risk and protective factors for eating, weight, and body image problems
Statistics about Dieting and the Drive for Thinness:
- Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005).
- Girls who diet frequently are 12 times more likely to binge eat than girls who don't diet (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005).
- Boys are 7 times more likely to binge if they diet frequently (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005)
- In a study of third through sixth graders, 50% of children wanted to weigh less and 16% reported attempting weight loss. Dieting was usually by changing food choices and exercising - both ideas they learned at home (Schur et al, 2000).
- The average American woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American model is 5'11" tall and weighs 117 pounds.
- Although there is evidence that medically supervised weight control may benefit overweight youth, data suggests for many adolescents dieting to control weight is ineffective and may lead to weight gain (Field et al, 2003).
- 35% of "normal dieters" progress to pathological dieting. Of those, 20-25% progress to partial or full-syndrome eating disorders (Shisslak & Crago, 1995).
- 25% of American men and 45% of American women are on a diet on any given day (Smolak, 1996).
- Significantly higher percentages of women than men had tried a low-fat diet and a low-carbohydrate diet. Significantly lower percentages of women than men had never tried a diet (Davy, S.R. et al, 2006).
