Effects of Self-Weighing on Health Locus of Control
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Although reducing age-related weight gain has been known to be our best predictor of pathologies related to obesity, we have failed to develop techniques to successfully reduce it. One method that appears successful in reducing or preventing age-related weight gain is the daily use of a common bathroom scale to monitor and track body weight. However, the underlying mechanism by which daily weighing inhibits weight gain is unknown. One such mechanism may be an increased sense of internal locus of control. We investigated whether the use of a body weight scale may shift an individual’s sense of self-control over their health, using the Health Locus of Control scale originally proposed by Rotter. The results of the present study, suggest that increased sense of internal locus of control cannot explain why self-weighing increases weight control .