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Friday 10 December 2010

Depression and it's link with Obesity

A new recent study has found that past surveys show having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more increases a person’s risk of depression by 50% to 150%.

Lead author said: “I expect that the relationship between depression and physical activity goes in both directions, Increased physical activity leads to improvement in depression and improvement in depression leads to increased physical activity. We see in our study that they go together, but we can’t say which causes which.”

In the study, women involved were put in two groups.
Group 1: Focused on weight loss
Group 2: Focused on weight loss and depression.

38% of the women who had at least a one-half point decrease on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression score lost at least 5% of their body weight.

But only 21% of the women who had no decrease in their depression score lost the same amount.

It seems that levels of depression can greatly affect your weight, perhaps suggesting that you must first help the mind before the body can be effectively helped also.


Simon GE, et al. Association between change in depression and change in weight among women enrolled in weight loss treatment. Gen Hosp Psych, 32(6), 2010.

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