Self-weighing among young adults: who weighs themselves and for whom does weighing affect mood? A cross-sectional study of a population-based sample

Samantha L Hahn,Carly R Pacanowski,Marla E Eisenberg,Jonathan Miller,Katie A Loth,Dianne Neumark-Sztainer

doi:10.1186/s40337-021-00391-y

Abstract

BackgroundSelf-weighing is widespread among young adults and is sometimes recommended by healthcare providers for weight management. The present study aims to deepen our understanding of who is frequently self-weighing among young adults, and to examine for whom self-weighing impacts mood based on weighing frequency and other eating and weight-related characteristics.MethodsSurvey data were collected from a large population-based sample of young adults (31.1 ± 1.6y) participating in Project EAT-IV (n = 1719). Cross-sectional data were stratified across sex and analyzed with chi-square, t-tests, and linear and logistic regressions controlling for age, ethnicity/race, education level, and income.ResultsSelf-weighing frequency was higher among male and female young adults with a current eating disorder, those trying to lose weight or who endorsed any disordered eating behaviors or cognition, and females with higher BMI. Young adult females were significantly more likely than males to report that self-weighing impacted their mood (53% vs 27%, p < 0.05). Among both male and female young adults, there was a higher probability of participants reporting that self-weighing impacted their mood among those who were self-weighing more frequently, had higher BMI, were trying to lose weight, and endorsed disordered eating behaviors or cognitions.ConclusionFindings suggest that for many young adults, particularly females and those with weight-related concerns, self-weighing is a behavior that comes with emotional valence. The emotional consequences of self-weighing should be considered when making public health and clinical recommendations regarding the usefulness of self-weighing.

Highlights

Self-weighing is widespread among young adults and is sometimes recommended by healthcare providers for weight management
Unhealthy weight control behaviors are of particular public health and clinical concern given associations between unhealthy weight control behaviors and numerous negative health consequences including the development of clinically significant eating disorders [10, 11], increased weight gain over time [12], and substance abuse [13, 14]
We found no associations between Body mass index (BMI) percentile category and predicted self-weighing frequency among male young adults

Summary

Introduction

Self-weighing is widespread among young adults and is sometimes recommended by healthcare providers for weight management. Frequent self-weighing is often recommended in the context of weight management under the premise that self-weighing will increase awareness of how one’s behaviors affect weight, leading to behavior change, and to weight maintenance or loss [1,2,3]. Longitudinal studies have found that adolescents and young adults who self-weighed more frequently at baseline experienced more weight gain over time [4, 5]. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have found that more frequent self-weighing is associated with increased likelihood of using unhealthy weight control behaviors [4, 5, 7,8,9]. Because frequent self-weighing is a risk factor for unhealthy weight control behaviors, understanding who is engaging in frequent self-weighing is critical to developing relevant prevention strategies

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion