New studies are an alert to young women and girls: reports show that females tend to stop exercising in their teens, and fitness experts say that is the wrong time to drop an exercise regimen.
One case study was done by a top Boston school: when a group of over 3,000 women was surveyed in a four-year study, some results painted a picture of a broken link between will and eventual results.  Over half of the respondents said in the earliest polling that they wanted to lose weight, and other quarter of them were trying to maintain the weight they were currently at.

But researchers found in the later years of the study, that the majority of the girls were gaining weight.

Studies like these show that girls tend to decrease physical activity in their teen years.  This is something that deserves a closer look – why would active young people tend to stop exercising?
Some experts blame the changes in social relationships that happen during the late teen years, and the new demands put on the schedules and emotions of young people turning toward adulthood.

Others blame a popular obsession with cosmetics and style in the late teen age group, claiming many girls are choosing to spend time primping and putting on make-up, rather than engaging in athletics that they see as conflicting with high-maintenance hairstyles and fashion looks.
Though there is a general tendency toward weight gain for teens, experts identify weekly exercise as well as dietary practices like portion control as being effective in limiting the gaining of additional pounds.
In a nutshell, what this means is that ‘re-branding’ physical exercise to appeal to females in their teens will have a positive effect on their overall health.

A large part of making workouts and fitness attractive is in providing a menu of activities that young people can identify and choose from: fitness gurus who are used to instructing people of all walks of life like to point out the various ways that anyone can get ‘natural’ exercise, including walking, running and jogging, as well as active sports, or even home gym training, yoga or Pilates.
Scholastic athletic programs offering sports opportunities to both male and female students are a great resource that has developed over recent years to give teens of both genders an edge on physical fitness.  Other exercise incentives can be more subtle: even a long walk in a shopping mall is a form of activity, good news for those young women who prefer this American pastime to athletics!

The bottom line, according to trainers and researchers, is that the choices made in this age range with regard to diet and fitness tend to stick with individuals for the rest of their lives, and so, teenagers will find the time is right for them to focus on a life-long commitment to physical activity and good health.