BMI of Participants in Weight Loss Camps: Should All Campers be Over a Certain BMI?

Abstract

The premise for this study is the idea that adolescent girls will have more success in weight loss when all of their peers in a weight loss context are overweight. If some of their peers who consider themselves to be overweight are actually at a healthy weight, the overweight girls may become discouraged, and, therefore, will not have as much weight loss success. This study consisted of two groups, made up of two identical weight loss camps. One camp only allowed entrance to girls who are considered medically overweight, with a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 29. The other camp has no entrance criteria. Self esteem, BMI of friends of each participant, and total weight loss in percentage were measured in order to determine which camp was most successful.