Health experts warn a weight-loss trial for obese teenagers could trigger eating disorders among participants, who are at times limited to only one quarter of their daily recommended energy intake.
When she was 14, Jess became obsessed with calorie counting, lost a quarter of her body weight and began withdrawing from her family before being diagnosed with anorexia.
"The children who are involved in this trial are overweight by Body Mass Index standards and so was I before my eating disorder," she said. Participants are split into two groups, and both start by completing a four-week fasting diet of between 700 and 800 calories per day — about a quarter of a healthy teenager's recommended energy intake.
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