Self-Weighing: Helpful or Harmful for Psychological Well-Being? A Review of the Literature.

ABSTRACT: Conflicting views as to the helpfulness or harmfulness of self-weighing for the control of body weight have been presented in the fields of obesity and eating disorders. Because self-weighing is increasingly being considered as an intervention to promote weight loss or prevent weight gain, it is timely to consider unintended psychological outcomes and behavioral correlates of this behavior. Twenty articles from the published literature examining self-weighing and psychological outcomes or weight control behaviors were reviewed. In evaluating self-weighing and affect (ten studies), self-esteem (four studies) and body evaluation (ten studies), and eating behaviors/cognitions (13 studies), in total, most studies found a negative relationship between self-weighing and outcomes (affect: 4/10, s

SUBMITTER: Pacanowski CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4729441 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature