The military practice of “making weight” is related to binge eating and eating pathology later in life, a new study led by a Yale researcher found.
The study was published in August 2019 in Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity. Robin Masheb, PhD, Senior Research Scientist in Psychiatry, is lead author of the study. Christopher Ruser, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine in the section of General Internal Medicine, is a co-author.
Military personnel are required to pass bi-annual physical fitness tests, including mandatory weigh-ins. Failure to “make weight” at weigh-ins carries significant consequences, including jeopardizing promotion and potential separation from service, Masheb said.
“Most alarming for us was that ‘making weight’ behaviors during military service were related to poor eating behaviors in our veterans many years after service,” Masheb said. “Those who used extreme weight control behaviors in the military were more likely to be binge eating and vomiting later in life, and reported more frequent emotional eating, night eating and symptoms of food addiction.
“Clearly we need to figure out how best to support our active duty military service members in healthy and realistic weight management efforts.”
Masheb is Director of the Veterans Initiative for Eating and Weight (The View), the only national program dedicated to addressing the broad spectrum of eating and weight problems in veterans through research and consultation.
Clearly we need to figure out how best to support our active duty military service members in healthy and realistic weight management efforts.
Robin Masheb, PhD, Senior Research Scientist in Psychiatry
Between 1992 and 2006, almost 24,000 soldiers were discharged from the military for exceeding maximum body fat requirements. The high stakes associated with weigh-ins places military personnel at risk for engaging in extreme behaviors to meet these requirements, Masheb said.
The most frequently reported behavior was excessive exercise, followed by fasting or skipping meals, use of a sauna or rubber suit, use of laxatives or diuretics, and vomiting.
The new measure developed for the study, called the Making Weight Inventory (MWI), revealed that one-third of veterans who were overweight/obese engaged in such behaviors while in military service.
The study found that participants who engaged in at least one weight making behavior were significantly more likely to be in a younger cohort of veterans, to identify as an ethnic/racial minority, and to currently engage in negative eating behaviors, including binge eating, vomiting, emotional eating, food addiction, and night eating, compared to those who did not engage in weight making.
The researchers recommended that future research and clinical efforts address how to best eliminate unhealthy weight control strategies in military service while also supporting healthy weight management efforts.