While the US is still fighting the obesity epidemic that is happening in the country, keeping an eye on one's weight may be seen as a positive health choice. However, a new study looks at the other side of it all and shows that for adolescents and young adults who are still forming their behaviors and beliefs around physical activity and food, self-weighing can have unfavorable psychological outcomes.
The new study, led by Carly R. Pacanowski, PhD, of the University of Minnesota, is published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one third of adults in the US are obese. That is 78.6 million people in total. Among children and adolescents between the ages of 2-19, it totals to about 12.7 million.
With so many health complications associated with being overweight or obese, it has become a health issue to the public, health care professionals are trying to deal with. But what happens when weight-control behaviors are taken to the obsessive levels and become unhealthy?
Pacanowski observes that some health experts have suggested that self-weighing could have a negative effect in an individual because it makes a person think about their weight too, rather than their overall picture of health. She explains that adolescent obesity is a public health concern, but body dissatisfaction and weight concerns maybe symptoms of an eating disorder. It is very alarming that obesity-prevention programs avoid aggravating these determiners by understanding how behaviors like self-weighing affect teens.
The researchers used the descriptions of those who volunteered for the study on how often they self-weighed. The team was able to find connections between self-weighing and changes in weight and psychological variables and behavioral effect. They ranked participants' self-weighing, ideal weight, weight concern, body satisfaction, self-esteem and depressive symptoms using a Likert scale. Adolescents self-reported that they are taking part in unhealthy behaviors, and the researchers calculated their body mass index (BMI).
Results revealed that adolescents, especially females who admitted to repeatedly self-weigh during the study period were more likely to have higher concern for their weight and showed depressive symptoms, as well as decreases in body satisfaction and self-esteem.
