Thinking you’re fat could actually lead to weight gain, according to new research on body image in teens.
A paper published in the journal Psychological Science found that teens who have distorted body image — specifically, that they thought they were overweight when they were actually normal weight — had a 40 percent greater risk of becoming obese before turning 30, reports New York Magazine’s Science of Us.
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Crum and Langer credited the hotel maids’ amazing short-term improvement to the “placebo effect” for exercise, and concluded that “it is clear that health is significantly affected by mindset.”
Adult weight gain is just one of several health consequences of distorted body image in teen years. Others include low self-esteem, depression and eating disorders. Parents can help counteract these ill effects with education and open dialogue about puberty, media representation and by modeling positive self-talk, according to the Mayo Clinic.
