Study exposes teenage weight fears ONE in 10 teenage girls have "extreme levels of fear" about gaining weight, a UK study suggests. Eleven per cent of 13-year-old girls suffer intense worry about getting fat compared with 4.7 per cent of boys the same age. Researchers from the University College London Institute of Child Health and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine also discovered that most teenage girls worry about gaining weight. They also found that a third of girls and one in five boys are upset or distressed about their weight and shape. Examining data concerning 7000 children, who are part of the University of Bristol's Children of the 90s study, the authors found that 26 per cent of girls and one in seven boys had restricted their food intake by fasting, skipping meals or throwing away food. And 53 per cent of girls and 41 per cent of boys had avoided fatty foods. The authors cautioned that eating problems had an impact on children's mental health and their social, personal and family life. We have found that behaviours typical of an eating disorder are more common in early adolescence than previously thought. Not just in girls but also in boys," said lead author Dr Nadia Micali.