In today’s news, we learn that the US weight loss and diet control market are worth 72 billion dollars.
How successful are the people that are pouring 72 billion dollars into these companies… less than 10%.
There is something wrong here. I tried to find this report to see all the specifics, but unfortunately, even my student id couldn’t grant me access to this.
However, as I was searching for the source, I did stumble across this article that stated that “half of Americans spend billions of dollars annually to lose weight.”
This study measured the increase in depressive symptoms when attempting to lose weight. The weight-loss strategies were categorized as unhealthy and not unhealthy. Although in my opinion, the entire list should be classified as harmful. It just so happens, this study agrees.
The entire list of strategies showed an increase in depressive symptoms when compared to people who were not trying to lose weight, including the so-called “healthy” weight loss strategies.
The unhealthy strategies, (listed as meal skipping, smoking for weight loss, laxatives or vomiting, supplements, and medication) were often used by people who were younger, heavier, had a recent history of weight loss, non-white, fair health, less educated and not married. The most common unhealthy strategy (44%) was meal skipping (:::cough::: intermittent fasting :::cough:::).
Depressive symptoms were highest for those who ate less food, skipped meals, took laxatives/vomited, weight loss supplement users, and liquid dieters.
There was a small correlation between those that used exercise for weight loss and less depressive symptoms but not what we consider to be “significant” in research.
Bottom Line: Those who attempted to lose weight were significantly more likely to be depressed. Keyword, significantly.
We have got to do better.
Not only are we pouring our hard-earned money into a failing industry (not economically failing obviously, but failing on all other measures), we are becoming more depressed as a result of it.
Ready for another way? Check out my free guide, where I explain how I lost 60 pounds in less than a year without the healthy or unhealthy strategies listed in this study.
