Nearly half of teenage girls are too embarrassed to exercise

Eight out of ten 11 to 21-year-olds want to be fitter but only half exercise at least once a week, the Nestle Social Research Programme found.

Asked why they did not exercise, 49% said they did not feel comfortable exercising in front of other people.

Two thirds of boys also wanted to be fitter but worried less about their weight and appearance while exercising, the study of 687 people found.

Some 55% of boys exercised once a week, compared to 53% of girls.

Boys were more likely to enjoy the competition aspect of sport with 48% saying they enjoyed this compared to 35% of girls.

Food

Instead, half of girls said they preferred to do more graceful exercises such as yoga and dance compared to just one in 10 boys.

The study also found less than half, 45%, of young people ate the recommended amounts of fresh fruit each day while just 56% check the sugar and fat levels in the food they eat.

Report author Professor Helen Haste, of Bath University, said: "The study showed appearance is particularly important to girls so we need to think about what forms of exercise we should encourage them to do.

REPORT FINDINGS 79% of girls want to be fitter, compared to 68% of boys 49% of girls do not feel comfortable exercising in front of other people Only 45% eat recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables Just 53% of girls and 55% of boys exercise once a week

"Girls said they felt self-conscious exercising in front of people but boys do not feel like this so much.

"We should be thinking more about graceful activities."

But she said both sexes were not doing enough about their health.

"Young people are still not exercising enough and have very patchy understanding about how to monitor their eating.

"The situation needs to be addressed, we should be reaching out to young people more. This is an important issue."

Low self-esteem

Paul Sacher, founder of the Institute of Child Health's Mend Programme, which works with families on adopting healthier lifestyles, said: "I think there is a problem with the way exercise is being designed at school.

"Often children are not actually doing that much exercise in PE sessions.

"The other problem is that a lot of the sport is competitive and only the children who are best at it end up getting picked and enjoying it.

"Those who are left out can develop low self-esteem and other problems.

"Instead, we should be looking at other sports children are interested in, such as martial arts and dance, as well as the obvious ones like football."

The study also suggested health warnings are getting through about drugs but not sex and drinking.

Some 90% said heroin was "very risky" while 86% said cocaine was.