With 19 years of experience as a personal trainer, Mark Jenkins counts celebrities such as Beyoncé and Sean "Diddy" Combs among his current and former clients. Mark Jenkins is also committed to fighting youth obesity and has served as an ambassador and trainer for the United Way’s Fun, Fly, & Fit youth program.
The journal Pediatric Obesity recently published a study by the National Institutes of Health that suggests teenagers and children who are ridiculed for being overweight are more likely to gain weight as they grow older than kids who are not teased. The study sought to better understand the relationship between childhood and youth overweight and obesity, which are widely considered to have reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and weight-based teasing, considered a top reason for bullying according to youths.
To conduct the study, researchers assessed 110 youths at a median age of 11.8 years. Fifty-three percent satisfied the criteria for being overweight according to the body mass index (BMI), and 47 percent were viewed as at risk of becoming overweight. Forty-three percent reported being teased for their weight at least once.
The study found that youths who had experienced significant weight-based teasing gained an extra .44 pounds each year compared with those who did not. This is a 33 percent increase in BMI each year. Further, the youths gained 91 percent more body fat each year.
Researchers theorize that the weight gain is likely a result of unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as binge eating, as well as emotional distress, which often keeps children from engaging in healthy behaviors like exercise.
