HHS HealthBeat (April 21, 2006)

Adventures in weight loss.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

How much fun can a teenager have dieting?

Dieting ranks lower than cleaning your room.

But many teens like to try adventure.

And Dr. Elissa Jelalian of Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center in Rhode Island says adventure may help weight loss. She has a study in the International Journal of Obesity. Her work was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Jelalian assigned some overweight teens to an adventure program based on Outward Bound, and others to aerobics classes. Both groups learned skills designed to change their approach to eating and being active.

Jelalian says the adventure group did better in maintaining a 10-percent weight loss 10 months later:

"We had about 24 or so percent in our adventure group and only about 4 percent in our exercise group." (seven seconds)

She thinks adventure and counseling work together.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August, 15 2006