Do I care? Young adults’ recalled experiences of early adolescent overweight and obesity –a qualitative study
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA FILE
Sections from interview transcripts with young adults relating to awareness of and/or concerns about early adolescent weight, provided to contextualise and supplement the brief data in the accompanying paper. As in the paper, these are organised according to how severe each participant’s adolescent obesity had been at its worst.
ANNE
Max SD category: extremely obese(age 15)
Early adolescent concerns category: minor/specific
Em I’ve always been overweight from a child since I was em a toddler, they don’t know why I’m bigger, since em, I’ve was referred to a dietician when I was about 3 or something because of my weight but I’ve been on a diet most of my life. All my life actually [...] but when you’re younger you think, I don’t care [ ..] .I always seemed to be a lot bigger than like the other kids as well, not, hugely bigger, but as I got older it started to get worse I think as well[...] I suppose I did kinda used to wonder why am I bigger than them when I was younger, but as I got older I just kinda accepted it [...] I kinda, it’s hard to judge what size you are when you look in the mirror, compared to what other people see you as. I used to kinda compare thinkin’ is that how big I look kinda thing, like weight-wise and things like that. But, I didn’t really, I didn’t compare myself against my friends, I wasn’t ever jealous in that respect I just knew it was something wrong with me, I couldn’t really change it. ... more as I hit kinda my teens, cause you know like fashionable clothes … but like if there was like a certain trend coming out and if they didn’t do it in my size and things, I’d be kinda a bit peeved, but, that was about it.[...] I liked PE. Em, badminton and netball, quite good at both of them. [...] I was friends with near enough everybody in school [...] I’m probably more confident now than what I was when I was a teenager […]Just probably cos I’d think everybody would be laughing at how, if I was bigger or not … I’d probably just all in my head, they probably weren’t, just self conscious because I was bigger, and then they’d probably think, I don’t actually know what I thought they thought. I just was more self aware then I think, and I’d care more about what people thought of me, than what I thought of me I think.
JENNY
Max SD category: extremely obese(age 15)
Early adolescent concerns category: none
I’ve always been pretty healthy, not so much fit or anything but no major health issues [...] No I was never really that envious of people or anything like that. Cos I did realise they, no matter how good the looks on the outside, I’m sure they’ve got problems too so it never bothered me, anything like that [...] I never worried about anything. Everything just sort of, my mum, everybody was always telling me that my problem is I don’t worry enough [...] there was one boy in particular right through primary school and then into secondary and I just got bullied off him and he was just an idiot. … no I never really got problems off anybody else [...] I’d never been skinny but I was never like overweight when I was younger. Up until I like hit puberty and I put on loads of weight.
DONNA
Max SD category: extremely obese(age 15)
Early adolescent concerns category: none
I’ve always been large, overweight. But I’ve also always felt that I was fit. For, I’ve always done things I did the Duke of Edinburgh in school […] Not necessarily running, but certainly the strength. And I think that’s the general impression I got when I look back is that I was never, I was always overweight but fit with it [...] That [comfort eating] was a result of bullying. Yeah by my peers. Little bastards. It just kinda drove me to it, kinda thing and it, it was difficult to stop. Which made me put on weight and then that kinda got worse with the bullying and then I eventually stand up to the bullies and they stopped, but at that point, the damage was done, you know it’s hard to kinda fight off the weight [...] I’ve always been tall, I think folk called me big, which is a word I never, I tall girl never likes to hear, regardless of size, but I think that was, I think that was it, it was because I was tall and big and then it just kinda became that I was tall and big, it was as if, own prophecy[...] I was quite a carefree teenager I didn’t really have any big worries or anything I wasn’t really worried about anything, I was just kinda living it [...] I think it’s [bullying] actually had an ironically positive one in that, and I’m very much a believer in what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger [...] cos it’s, as I said, once I did stand up to them, it stopped. But at that point of course the damage was done, it’s too late. Physically, not mentally. It never really had that much of an impact [...] I’ve always been, I’ve been told quietly confident. In that I don’t really let much faze me like being bullied and stuff like that, it’s like well just deal with it, but I’ve been more outwardly confident.
ELIZABETH
Max SD category: extremely obese(age 15)
Early adolescent concerns category: major/general
Because when I was a teenager I always thought that, I was overweight. And I always felt that, looking, everybody else thought I was as well […] they [primary school peers] knew me, for who I was. And then I moved to [secondary school] and, I felt like, it was all – ‘oh look at her, she’s overweight’ and – ‘look at her she’s sitting doon there and she’s eating a bar o’ chocolate’. And maybe shouldn’t be eating that bar o’ chocolate. And it was just silly things that made you think, ‘oh my gosh, look at her - she’s dead skinny and, my god look at me’ […] me looking at other people as well an’, seeing them and going – ‘oh my gosh, I remember being like that when I was at primary school. What happened? And how I ended up like this’ […] I like things that involve water because, I don’t know I just think that when I first started I thought it hid me, more than anything else, know that way ‘cos you’re dead self conscious and you think, if I go in the water I’m just gonna hide in the water […] I think it was just, ‘cos you’d see all these other people wandering about you and you’d think, ‘my gosh look at me. How can I, live like this? […]that boy where he’d think ‘oh my God let’s pick on her because she’s dead easy target’ and- But after a while you just get used to it and, just go aye well […] I think sometimes I just felt like I was ready to have a good bubble [cry] and, you’d jus- I was that mad and that sad and that angry that, I just needed a good bubble and I’d go away if I needed it and I’d just sit in my room […] not that anybody ever said it, but I felt, like I was overweight and that was, that was me personally. Know that way I’d look at myself and I’d go, ‘oh my gosh look at me compared to you or, look at me compared to her - how much of a difference can you see an’- how different are we.
LISA
Max SD category: extremely obese(age 15)
Early adolescent concerns category: major/general
I had a very strange body image. I thought I was a lot heavier than what I was and, my perception of me was very low. Particularly in my early teen years I was quite, unhappy to be me and very low in confidence. And it took a wee period of me losing some weight to get a lot of my confidence […] I just didn’t think much of myself. I know that’s the case for a lot of teenagers. But I kind of a stood out like a sore thumb because I was, taller than everybody else and, I was heavier […] cos my early teens I wore a lot of black. Not- not in a Goth way but in a very, I’m just hiding myself kind of a way […] I was kinda hidden and covered an, and whatever for the first half o’ my teen years […] we’re kinda the- the outcast group at the school. Cos we were a bit- all very, very different […] [Interviewer - teenage concerns?] Always concerned about my weight and my size.
GEOFF
Max SD category: extremely obese(age 13)
Early adolescent concerns category: none
I’ve always been a bit heavy [...] But I wouldny be overly concerned aboot it. [Interviewer - you weren't as a teenager?] Naw no really. That’s who I wis, I couldny really change that. Well I could but no in, I’ve always been big even as a child [...] a wee boy I wis always quite chubby [...] so there’s no much I can, well when you’re wee you canny dae nothing aboot it it’s just the way you are.
EILIDH
Max SD category: extremely obese(age 13)
Early adolescent concerns category: none
I was really big when I was a teenager, I think at my biggest I was 16 stone [...] kinda mid-teens I didn’t really do very much and it wasn’t till a couple of years ago [....] by the time was 16 I think I was a size 24. So I was pretty big so that kinda always was in my head. [...] It’s weird cos all my friends look back on it as well and say we didn’t realise that you were the size that you were, they knew that I was big but they didn’t realise I was that big and I think that was how it was for me as well …Aye I think it, it got to the stage where I was like that ‘oh god, do you know I can’t even fit into a size 22 that’s ridiculous’, do you know that I realised that I was huge. But before that like, being a 16 an 18 or a 20 it didn’t, it just didn’t register with me, do you know there was always like excuses in your head like ‘oh it must be small made or’. So I didn’t really acknowledge it much until I was really, really big [...] But, it didn’t really affect, like I still met boys and went out with guys and stuff so no it never really bothered me too much, do you know
CHARLIE
Max SD category: very obese(age 15)
Early adolescent concerns category: minor/specific
I was ov- massively overw- I was quite a bit overweight at the time … but it’s just something that’s- when I was a teenager I was […] I wouldn’t se- I wouldn’t- I didny still see anything wrong wi that. Well no wrong with it I didn’t- wasn’t- really able to do much about it. […] Aye they’re all good memories. School, for fun … But again I’d quite a big group of friends so, enjoyed it. […] compared to ma pals I was a bit bigger, I was always heavier. But I mean I’d, big, but I’m one- one o’ ma pals at school was sorta big- eh same size as me. […] nah, no concerns… No, quite carefree I mean a- ma weight had obviously been a concern for me, I find one o’ those things you’d- that’d get tae ye sometimes but it wis- apart from that,nothing. [Interviewer - What ways did it get to you?] Ach I dunno, jist generally. The- the thing that- you just- I remember always thinking right, eh, how easy it would be to do something about it if I put ma m- if I put ma mind to it. But then nothing would- wouldn’t be able- nothing would- wouldn’t be able to like consistently go on a diet or, em, anything like that. But I mean- obviously at that point I’d a liked to a lost weight but I wasn’t majorly unhappy wi being overweight if you know what I mean I wasn’t depre- didn’t get me down, didn’t depress me or anything like that it was just something I knew I could- I could make be- I could eh fix. But, I didn’t- I was ab- I wasn’t able to fix it whether it was just that I wasn’t fully committed to it or whatever, I dunno […] I don’t- I don’t remember the- to having sorta low points for any length o’ time or anything like that … you know hear people getting depressed and putting on weight because o’ that I’ve- I’ve always been kinda happy stuff like that.
RICHARD
Max SD category: very obese(age 15)
Early adolescent concerns category: minor/specific
I mean, I was still a big boy when I was in school, but I was still fit as anything and could run aboot […] I probably coulda done wae losing maybe a stone, maybe a stone and a half – that was aboot it. I was just, I mean I’ve got broad shoulders and all that – I was a big, I was a big guy. But I was, I mean, I huvnae pictures but I was still fit as anything, one of the fastest runners in the school, used to do marathon running […] t was a big group of us [at school], used to just hang around every break, playing football […] I never got bullied or anything like that. I mean, like I says, I was a big guy, so nobody really bothered wae me. [Interviewer – concerns as a teenager?] I mean, I wasnae that bothered aboot my weight when I was there. It did get worse as I got older, then by the time I got to aboot fourteen, fifteen, that’s when, obviously, you start looking at yourself a wee bit mare, plus I had really bad acne when I was younger, from maybe thirteen to fifteen … Looks-wise, I mean, likesa my health, my weight and my teeth bothered me when I was younger, still do a wee bit actually, but major concerns or anything like that, I mean, I think when you are in high school, I think your looks are your major concern. I don’t think health is what you actually think aboot, I think it’s just the way you look. […] you’ve got a wee flabby belly and that, and you’re like, “I don’t really wanna go swimming noo.” So I used to avoid swimming coz it wasnae something I was into. But just the way you look, and the way you feel aboot yourself. Plus, know what I mean, when you get to that age, obviously lassies and everything start paying, ‘they’re no gonna be interested if there’s a belly on me and that’, […] but I would say I was podgy, more than anything. I wasnae, like, fat. I mean, I think there’s a difference between fat and podgy. I think I was podgy.
PATRICIA
Max SD category: very obese(age 13)
Early adolescent concerns category: none
At one point I was a size twenty, I was quite big, and I, I was very fit, I went to the gym and stuff, but I was really big […] It didn’t really… at the time, it didn’t really matter to me. I knew a lot of people who were quite big so it was kinda more, more than just one of me and I didn’t really notice it. […] As a teenager, even though I was heavy, I wasn’t unwell, you know …I know that not everybody is who’s healthy, but when I was, you know, I was a size twenty, I was doing weight-training at the gym several times a week so I never bothered about weighing myself at that point. I just weighed… it was clothing sizes that mattered more to me if you know what I mean so I have no idea of what weight I was […] I had friends in every class I was in you know, even if it wasn’t the people I kinda hung around with… outside school, I knew quite a lot of people, I was quite a jolly person you know what I mean […] I was concerned about my weight. I was I didn’t like being big and stuff, but I mean it wasn’t see now when I look back, in some pictures I wasn’t as big as I thought I was. […] I suppose some of my friends, I probably chose them on purpose cos they were like me, you know. But I don’t remember sitting there and being really, really concerned about anything. I really don’t, I don’t remember thinking I’d kill myself or anything, do you know what I mean I was never like that […] And even like I say when I, when I was talking about how heavy I was, people would always just say “you’re not that heavy, it’s all right, you’re not that heavy”. And do you know what I mean you, you sometimes go right ok. But you know it’s, I don’t know but I mean I don’t think I was that concerned not, nothing terrible or anything you know cos I hear about people who are teenagers and they get bullied and like they, they want till kill themselves and stuff I was never really bullied or anything.
COLIN
Max SD category: very obese(age 15)
Early adolescent concerns category: major/general
I hated the way I looked. I hated the size I was, and I just tried everything in my power. Even, at one point, I did make myself sick, at one point, but I stopped doing that […] I was fifteen. I done it for just aboot two and a half years, I done it for. […] It’s [weight’s] always an issue, even to this day […] I think, sometimes, I wouldn’t go out, because I felt pure horrible about myself. […] my friend, he was always what you could class as being the pure stunning looking, slim and dead athletic looking person – and then there’s wee fat, frumpy person beside him and that used tae pure, it really, really annoyed me […] I was always part of the kinda popular group in school … I never got bullied at school
KIRSTY
Max SD category: obese(age 15)
Early adolescent concerns category: none
I was a 16, 14-16 when I was at school […] then I was about 16 onwards I was about a 16, and then I just went up and up [Interviewer – teenage concerns?] Naw, no really, I was never worried aboot anything in particular. I think the big one was boys, aye, more worried aboot getting my first boyfriend and you know, my first proper kiss and things like that […] when I was a teenager I was never bothered aboot my weight, it just never bothered me […]when I was younger, it didnae bother me, I don’t think I really had any concept of being big you know. […] it was just never a problem you know, I was never picked on for being big or, no I was never bullied for being… My friends never used to mention it, and you know, I just don’t think it, it really registered, it’s just noo that maybe I’m that wee bit aulder an’, I don’t know, something in me is just ready and thinks, naw it’s time you know to lose weight. But when I was a teenager it just never occurred to me whatsoever.