Table 1.

Percentage of responses to commonly reported barriers to healthy eating [25-41] and obtaining physical activity [42-58] from adolescents attending initial focus groups.

Barriers		%
Barriers to healthy eating
	They eat too many snacks.	69
	They like to eat foods from school vending machines or snack bar.	67
	They drink a lot of sodas or sweetened beverages every day.	61
	They skip breakfast.	54
	They don’t like most healthy foods, such as vegetables.	35
	Their friends tease or make fun of them if they eat healthy foods.	35
	Few or none of their friends eat healthy foods.	34
	They eat at restaurants a lot (eg, several times a week).	31
	Their friends do not eat healthy foods at restaurants.	29
	They don’t know how to prepare foods.	27
	They think healthy foods cost too much.	23
	Unhealthy foods taste better.	22
	They don’t like healthy foods in general.	11
	It takes too much time to make healthy foods.	9
	They do not have healthy foods at home.	5
Barriers to physical activity
	They would rather do other activities (eg, play video games, watch TV, or talk on the phone).	65
	They have too much homework.	59
	Their friends do not like or do physical activity with them.	59
	They are too busy with afterschool activities or chores.	41
	Bad weather (eg, rain, snow, or heat) is a problem.	39
	They do not have enough time to be physically active.	31
	They are not good at most physical activities.	27
	They think physical activity is too hard.	21
	They do not have physical activity equipment at home.	21
	They don’t have the money to pay for sports or physical activity costs (eg, clothing, equipment, or fees).	19
	They do not have a safe place to be physically active.	14
	They can’t get to practices or places to be physically active.	14
	No one reminds them to be physically active.	13
	They think physical activity makes their body hurt.	12
	They don’t like to sweat.	11
	They worry that other people will laugh or tease them when they do physical activity.	9
	They think physical activity messes up hair and/or makeup.	4