Encourage your son or daughter to weigh in. In a study of 130 overweight young people between the ages of 12 and 20, those who said they weighed themselves once a week or more were four times as likely as those who didn’t to take healthful steps to control their weight, including eating less junk food, drinking more water, and snacking on more fruits and veggies. The young people who weighed in weren’t at an increased risk for unhealthy practices like fasting, using laxatives, or vomiting to lose weight.
Source: Journal of Adolescent Health, May 2009