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Daily weight monitoring as a method of weight gain prevention in healthy weight and overweight young adult women

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Journal of Health Psychology: An Interdisciplinary, International Journal

Published online on

Abstract

Experimental research is needed to examine whether weight monitoring impacts weight and whether it has unintended harmful effects. This study randomly assigned 49 first-year university women (body mass index: 20–30 kg/m2) to daily weight monitoring or a control condition and measured weight, mood, body dissatisfaction, and unhealthy weight control behaviors at baseline and 8 weeks, and weight at 20-week follow-up. No harmful effects of daily weighing were detected; acceptability and adherence were high. Weight monitoring did not impact weight; both groups showed little weight gain. Results suggest that weight monitoring has minimal harmful effects and may be useful for preventing weight gain.