Health

Fat-shaming kids doesn’t help them lose weight

Sending New York City students home with fat-shaming report cards does not help them lose weight, an extensive new study has found.

As part of the NYC Fitnessgram initiative, students are given periodic weight updates that include their body mass index (BMI) — and, until last year, designations such as “underweight” or “obese.”

But kids deemed overweight don’t shed pounds because of the progress reports, according to the study, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“It’s not enough just to get the information out there,” Syracuse Professor Amy Ellen Schwartz told the Associated Press. “You have to get it to people in a way that’s actionable.”

Last year, city schools stopped using words like “overweight” on the Fitnessgram reports after The Post revealed that skinny-as-a-rail student Gwendolyn Williams from Staten Island was given that designation.

Gwendolyn Williams on the cover of the New York Post.

The reports now use “healthy fitness zone” and “needs improvement.”

Still, Gwendolyn doesn’t think the reports are helping.

“They should make the food better, and not give us the vegetables that no one is ever going to eat,” she said, adding that kids should also be able to get more exercise during school.

Gwendolyn’s mom, Laura Bruij-Williams, said the city should ditch the scale and simply serve kids healthier food.

“Our children deserve better,” said Bruij-Williams. “If they are truly concerned with the health of their students, they will carve out more time for real recess, not 15 minutes of structured play in which they can’t run or kick a ball too hard. There have been numerous studies proving that kids learn better when they’re allowed to blow off steam in the playground.”

She urged parents to opt out of BMI testing.

“Change does not come without a fight, and it’s up to us to spur on that change. Write letters. Attend council meetings. At the very least, opt out.”

Researchers analyzed measurements for all city public school students from 2007 to 2012, comparing boys and girls who fell just over and under the “overweight” or “obese” thresholds for their age.

The researchers found no indication that those over the lines were ever able to shed pounds — and the average overweight girl actually gained a bit more than students just below the cutoff.

“We find that overweight categorization generates small impacts on girls’ subsequent BMI and weight,” the study found.

City Department of Education spokeswoman Toya Holness said, “These assessments, which include measures of health-related fitness, in addition to height and weight, are shared with students and their families to spark conversations about eating habits and levels of physical activity needed for good health.”