Striving to prevent obesity and other weight-related problems in adolescent girls: The New Moves approach

New Moves was developed as a school-based obesity prevention intervention for adolescent girls. The program underwent extensive pilot-testing with funding from the American Heart Association. It is being evaluated in a group-randomized controlled trial with six intervention and six comparison schools; the study is being funded by the National Institutes of Health. The intervention targets inactive adolescent girls at risk for obesity and other weight-related problems. New Moves addresses risk factors of relevance to a broad spectrum of weight-related problems. This chapter describes the New Moves intervention, with particular attention given to a few key messages and intervention strategies that have relevance not only to obesity, but also to other weightrelated problems. It begins with an overview of the New Moves program. This section is followed by more detailed descriptions of the New Moves physical education component, which was designed to help girls feel comfortable being physically active regardless of their shape, size, or skills; the non-dieting approach to healthier eating; and strategies used to help the girls to view their bodies more positively. The chapter concludes by considering the importance of integrating programs such as New Moves into existing institutions, and developing programs that address a broad spectrum of weight-related problems for different types of populations.