For a study, researchers sought to understand that in both non-clinical samples and patients with eating disorders, greater weight suppression had been found to predict weight gain. Few studies have also found interactive effects between weight loss and current BMI when predicting weight gain. Investigators examined clinical records of inpatients with anorexia nervosa (N=2191, 97% female) to see if weight suppression and body mass index at admission could predict different weight trajectories during treatment. During treatment, body weight increased in a non-linear fashion. Higher weight suppression predicted greater weight gain, but BMI determined the nature of this effect at admission. Patients with high weight suppression started at a lower weight and gained weight at a nearly linear and steeper rate than those with low weight suppression. In patients with a relatively high body weight at admission, those with high weight suppression began at a similar weight and gained weight in a non-linear and larger manner than those with low weight suppression. The findings supported the notion that weight suppression was a strong predictor of weight gain in addition to current body weight. Because weight suppression can be easily assessed at admission, it may help predict treatment course and outcome in anorexic patients.
Source:www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022399922002094
