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Madison Williams

Professor Watson

English-1001

8 October 2018

The Connection Between Weight Cycling and Mental Health

Over the past couple of weeks I have been researching about weight cycling and the

possible connection between it and mental health. Weight cycling (also known as the “Yo-Yo

Effect”) is known as the repeated loss and gain of weight. Not only is weight cycling known for

changing your metabolism, it is also known to affect the heart, skin and mind. I chose this topic

because of how prevalent it is in society today. There are so many people in the world that

struggle with the issue and also struggle with speaking out and getting help with this problem.

I also chose this topic because I personally have struggled with weight cycling. I

understand the struggle others go through to maintain their weight, I also understand where the

mental health connection could be drawn from because I personally experienced mental health

issues when my weight cycling was occurring. My weight has always been up and down for the

most part of my life, about two years ago I gained over forty pounds. I got my real first job

working at McDonalds and most of my money went to junk food. I stayed that way for almost

two years before I was able to get my weight and overall health together. I was eating to cope

with how I was feeling and what I was going through mentally, I think that is an important

portion of my life to never forget in order to maintain stability. I think it is also important to note

that in order for me to have gotten where I am today it took consistency, getting rid of most junk

foods and incorporating some sort of movement into my life.

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Weight cycling can be detrimental to a person’s overall health. As mentioned above it can affect

a person’s metabolism. It is important to understand that, especially when there is a large

possibility that your body can go into “starvation mode”, which basically just slows your

metabolism down, and if your goal is to lose weight then you would want to increase your

metabolism not slow it down. It can also create damage towards your heart, like increasing your

chances of developing diseases like coronary heart disease

https://www.ucsfhealth.org/conditions/coronary_artery_disease/

Fig. 1

Weight cycling can also affect a person’s skin. When you gain and lose weight it stretches the

skin and can causes stretch marks and wrinkling of the skin. Weight Cycling can affect you

mentally. Weight cycling has been connected to depression; a person’s weight going up and

down constantly can take a toll on their mind, and I know it took a toll on my own mind. From

the plethora of articles that I read I found one thing that they all had in common, and that was

that there needed to be more research done over the connection between mental health and

weight cycling.

Parents have the ability to control what their children consume. I believe that if parents

regulate and are more aware of what their kids eat, as well as research what it is that they feed

their children it could not only help prevent their child/children from growing into weight

cycling, but it would teach their child/children wiser eating habits. I also believe that regulating

what children watch could also benefit them, because a lot of unhealthy food marketing are
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targeted towards children. One of the websites that I used while furthering my research over

connections between weight loss and mental health pointed out the health effects of the frequent

consumption of fast foods, as well as effects of a low-quality diet; “Research shows that frequent

consumption of fast food leads to heart disease, obesity, headaches, acne, high blood pressure,

dental problems and high cholesterol. Diet also affects mental health. People with a low-quality

diet — processed meat, chocolates, sweet desserts, fried food, refined cereals and high-fat dairy

products — are more likely to suffer from depression, according to Katherine Zeratsky, a

certified dietitian in the American Dietetic Association” (Jueun Choi). In the article, multiple

surveys as well as polls were done and the results of one poll showed that most parents were

aware of their children’s bad eating habits and understand that it determines a child’s health in

the long run of their life according to the poll; “Ninety-seven percent of parents in the U.S. think

that childhood eating habits determine children’s health for their lifetime, but only 17% say their

child’s diet is very healthy, according to a recent national poll by the C.S. Mott Children’s

Hospital” (Jueun Choi). The last piece of evidence that I pulled from this specific website was a

survey that showed percentages from one thousand seven hundred and sixty seven parents with

children ages four to eighteen;

 73% rate their children’s diet as very or mostly healthy.

 27% rate their children’s diet as somewhat or not healthy.

 34% are confident they are shaping good eating habits of their children.

 21% say it is somewhat or not important to cut down on junk food or fast food.

 16% believe it is somewhat or not important to reduce sugary drinks.

 13% say it is somewhat or not important that their child eats fruits and vegetables

every day. (Jueun Choi)

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This information is important because one in five parents do not see that it is important to

regulate the amount of unhealthy food that their children are consuming.

An academic article that I gathered information, contained a systematic review on diet

and mental health in children and adolescents. The article reviewed twelve epidemiological

studies to determine whether or not there is a link between diet quality and mental health. Nine

reviewed the relationship using diet as the exposer and the other three reviewed the relationship

using mental health as the exposer. The article then goes on to state “We found evidence of a

significant, cross-sectional relationship between unhealthy dietary patterns and poorer mental

health in children and adolescents. We observed a consistent trend for the relationship between

good-quality diet and better mental health and some evidence for the reverse.” The article then

states what exact information highlights which include “the potential importance of the

relationship between dietary patterns or quality and mental health early in the life span.” (O’Neil

Adrienne).

It is important to not overdue it on the caffeine and in a magazine article “How Diet

Affects Your Mental Health” experts say to make your meals more social because it boosts the

quality of an individual’s diet. The article also lists different key factors in successful dieting and

an overall stable mental state like, planning your meals because motivation is lost when

individuals suffer from mental illnesses like depression as well as individuals who suffer from

anxiety who may partake in coping mechanisms such as over or under eating. Other key factors

include sharing your food with others (as mentioned above), Tasting and trying new and

different foods and checking on yourself to ensure you’re okay with yourself mentally and

physically.
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There is still so much research to be done over this topic. Most of the sources that I

included and researched for more information all had one thing in common, and that included the

fact that more research needed to be done over the correlations between mental health and

weight cycling. The Systematic Review article did thorough research and studies over the topic

however in the end like the rest of the articles it came down to the conclusion of more research

needing to be done over the topic. I believe that a poor diet can affect an individual’s mental

health and I also believe that starting healthier eating habits can affect the outcome of a child’s

mental health positively. The research that was conducted shows that there is a definite

connection between mental health and weight cycling however more research is needed on the

topic.
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Work Cited

Choi, Jueun. “Parents Struggle to Keep the Junk Food out of Little Mouths.” USA Today,

Gannett Satellite Information Network, 6 Mar. 2017,

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/02/23/american-parents-struggle-to-feed-

healthy-food-to-children/98270318/

. Miller, Kelli. “Can What You Eat Affect Your Mental Health?” WebMD, WebMD, 20 Aug.

2015, www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20150820/food-mental-health#1.

Mlynek February, Alex. “7 Brain-Boosting Nutrition Tips for Your Mental Health.” Best Health

Magazine Canada, Best Health Magazine Canada, www.besthealthmag.ca/best-

you/mental-health/how-diet-affects-mental-health/#genesis-content.

O'Neil, Adrienne, et al. "Relationship between Diet and Mental Health in Children and

Adolescents: A Systematic Review." American Journal of Public Health, vol. 104, no. 10,

2014, pp. e31-42. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-

com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/docview/1564433274?accountid=2909.