Weight Cycling, Psychological Health, and Binge Eating in Obese Women

This study examined the relationship between weight cycling and psychological health in 120 obese women. Weight cycling was defined in 2 ways by retrospective self-report: total lifetime weight loss and total number of weight cycles ≥ 20 lbs (≥ 9.07 kg). Psychological self-report measures assessed psychiatric symptoms, eating behavior, mood, stress, and perceptions of physical health. Of the 52 associations between weight cycling and psychological parameters, 8 were significant, with the most consistent association being between weight cycling and binge eating. Binge eating was also strongly associated with psychological distress, as found in previous studies. After adjusting for binge eating, however, weight cycling was independently related to only one of the psychological measures: perceived physical health.