Many factors contribute to obesity; however, struggling with depression or eating disorders can make achieving a normal, healthy weight almost impossible. According to a four-year study involving almost 500 adolescent girls (ages 11-15), researchers found that those who were depressed or tried radical dieting were more likely to become obese than those who ate high-fat foods or sometimes binged.
That's because, explained researchers, harsh weight-control methods can promote weight gain, rather than weight loss. Such methods include:
- Vomiting
- Skipping meals
- Using laxatives
Moreover, extreme dieting results in overeating or a shift in metabolism -- because the body doesn't know what's going on or when the next "normal" meal will come, it slows down.
Other Obesity Predictors
While eating high-fat foods, binge-eating or lack of exercise did not forecast future weight gain; the study revealed that whether or not a girl's parents were obese (explained not by genetics but by environmental factors such as what's lurking in the fridge) was a predictor of obesity.
And, aside from depression leading to overeating, another possibility for the depression-obesity link is likely caused by a lack of the happy chemical serotonin, which motivates people to eat a lot of carbohydrate-rich foods.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology April 2005 (Free Full-Text Article)
| 