Embarrassment puts teenage girls off exercise, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 07 Oct 2004 - 10:00 PDT

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Many teenage girls want to be fitter and lose weight, but fewer than half do any exercise once a week because they are too embarrassed, according to new research.

A new study to be published later this month by the Nestle Social Research Foundation found that although teenager girls want to exercise they are often put off because they do not like the way that they look while exercising.

A total of 49 per cent of girls said that they did not feel comfortable exercising in front of other people, whilst 35 per cent said they did not have time, 34 per cent said they did not look good in exercise clothes, 33 per cent said they did not want to look too muscular and 30 per cent said because they were not good at sports.

Anne Longfield, the chief executive of the children's charity 4children believes that schools should offer a wide range of activities to encourage exercise.

She said: "Traditional sports are often a huge turn-off to girls because they feel embarrassed if they're not good enough."

"Young people want to be fit and healthy but there are some worrying figures about their lack of exercise. We are trying to encourage them into non-traditional sports such as dancing and yoga."

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