Spouse Plays a Significant Part in Influencing Extreme Dieting Measures

Women who are constantly egged on by their husband or partner to lose weight are more likely to resort to unhealthy measures, a new study has found.

The study finds that unhealthy weight control behaviors, such as fasting, using diet pills, and self-induced vomiting, are common among young adults and are often the beginning of more severe eating disorders, depression and other health problems.

Teens Get Overwhelmed by Talk of Weight and Dieting: Research
A new research has suggested that overweight teenagers who were spoken to by their parents about their weight are likelier to engage in binge eating and use unhealthy weight-control behaviours.

The study surveyed 1,294 young adults in Minnesota between the ages of 20 and 31 who were in relationships.

They were asked about their eating habits and whether their partner "diets to lose weight or keep from gaining weight" or "encourages me to diet to control my weight."

Almost half of the participants said their significant other encouraged them to diet.

Greater Brain Reward Activity In Youth In Response To Dieting
One common complaint of people who strictly follow weight-loss diets is that the weight comes back when they stop dieting.

Encouragement, however, was often viewed as negative or critical rather than supportive.

Binge eating among women was nearly doubled if their significant other encouraged dieting "very much" (25.5 percent) compared to "not at all" (13.6 percent).

Higher Reward Value Perception Post Dieting is the Major Reason Why Most Weight Loss Diets Fail
Researchers at Oregon Research Institute have come out with a more comprehensive description of the impact of caloric restriction.

Overall, more than 40 percent of the people surveyed had used extreme diet tactics in the past year, which were more common among women (51.2 percent) than men (29.9 percent)

Clinical psychologist Jennifer McClure, Ph.D., associate director of research, faculty and development at Group Health Research Institute, who was not associated with the study, commented that young adults' eating habits are influenced both positively and negatively by significant others as a result of so-called modeling or peer pressure.

The study is published in the American Journal of Health Promotion.

Source-ANI