Attempts to Lose Weight Among US Children: Importance of Weight Perceptions from Self, Parents, and Health Professionals.

As perceptions of children's weight status play big roles in children's attempts to lose weight, interventions focusing on increasing accuracy of perceptions may help promote healthy weight loss efforts. Although parents are key agents in controlling their children's weight gain, especially among minority school-aged children, the study findings also emphasize the greater importance of health professionals on children's attempts to lose weight across different racial/ethnic groups.