Depression can cause weight gain in just one month: study

By Isobel Williams via SWNS

Feeling depressed can cause weight gain in just a month - and deterioration of physical health in the long term, warns a new study.

Researchers found that increases in symptoms of depression are associated with a subsequent increase in bodyweight when measured one month later.

Although a connection between the two has long been known it was poorly understood how one impacts the other.

However the effect was only found in people who were already overweight with comfort eating or lack of exercise a possible reason.

The University of Cambridge team set out to bridge this knowledge gap by examining data from 2,000 adults who live in Cambridgeshire.

The participants completed questionnaires on mental wellbeing and bodyweight on a mobile app every month for nine months during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021.

Dr. Kirsten Rennie said: “Apps on our phones make it possible for people to answer short questions at home more frequently and over extended periods of time, which provides much more information about their wellbeing.

“This technology could help us understand how changes in mental health influence behavior among people with overweight or obesity and offer ways to develop timely interventions when needed.”

The findings, published in PLoS ONE, show that for every increment increase in an individual’s usual score for depressive symptoms, their subsequent weight one month later increased by 45g.

This would mean that an individual whose depressive symptoms score rose from mild to moderate would have an average weight gain of 225g.

This effect, however, was only observed in those individuals who were already considered as overweight or with obesity.

Overweight individuals had on average an increase of 52g for each increase from their usual depressive symptoms and for those with obesity, the comparable weight gain was 71g.

This effect was not seen in those individuals with a healthy weight or in response to anxiety and stress symptoms.

Dr. Julia Mueller said: “Overall, this suggests that individuals with overweight or obesity are more vulnerable to weight gain in response to feeling more depressed.

“Although the weight gain was relatively small, even small weight changes occurring over short periods of time can lead to larger weight changes in the long-term, particularly among those with overweight and obesity.

“People with a high BMI are already at greater risk from other health conditions, so this could potentially lead to a further deterioration in their health.

“Monitoring and addressing depressive symptoms in individuals with overweight or obesity could help prevent further weight gain and be beneficial to both their mental and physical health.”