There has been a strong emphasis on combatting childhood obesity in recent years. Changes to school meals and adverts to combat junk food consumption and encourage exercise have been very present. You know what? It appears to be working. At the beginning of this year the NHS found that child obesity rates are ‘stabilising,' which is great news. But is there a flip side to the coin?
Well, a study published in the _Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour00633-8/abstract){href='http://www.jneb.org/article/S1499-4046(15)00633-8/abstract' target='blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'} found that young women weighing themselves every day could have severe psychological consequences for them.
The research was conducted by Project Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults. It followed 1,868 teens and young adults over a 10-year period to see how present self-weighing was in teens in their transition into young adults.
The results showed that females who reported an increase in self-weighing over the 10-year period were expected to experience a decrease in body satisfaction, self-esteem and were more likely to suffer from depression.
The implication is that doctors or GPs should monitor self-weighing in young people and look at the motivations behind it, as an obsession with weight could lead to eating disorders later on.
Similarly, in a different study, Project EAT found that 38% of adolescent boys and 50% used unhealthy weight control methods such as skipping meals and taking diet pills.
So if you find yourself obsessively self-weighing, maybe it’s time to ditch the scales and visit your GP.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.