Self weighing

Abstract

Welcome to Public Health Moment from the University of Minnesota. Is it a healthy for young adults to weigh themselves frequently? That’s what researchers with Project Eat at the University of Minnesota wanted to learn, so they studied more than 2,000 adults with an average age of 25. Virginia Quick, one of the researchers in the study, explains the results. <Quick: “What we found were that young adults who weighed themselves a few times a week or more were at increased risk or associated with more frequency of unhealthy weight control behaviors, also healthy weight control behaviors, unhealthy muscle-enhancing substance use behaviors, and also poor psychological well being.”> Quick said that before recommending self-weighing as a weight-monitoring tool, health care providers should screen young adults to ensure that they are not at risk of unhealthy weight behaviors. <Quick: “We really encourage health care providers to screen young adults for some of these unhealthy psychological behaviors that may be occurring. So, they could be weighing themselves more frequently and that could be associated with some of these poor health outcomes. “I believe one of the most important messages, take-home messages, is really that your weight on the scale doesn’t measure your overall health and well being. There are other ways to measure your overall health and well being.”> For Public Health Moment, I’m Mark Engebretson.