An investigation of weight suppression in a population-based sample of female twins.

OBJECTIVE Weight suppression (WS), maintaining a body weight below one's maximum adult weight, is associated with bingeing, purging, and weight gain in clinical samples. METHOD We investigated associations between eating disorder-related variables and WS and additive genetic (A), common (C), and unique (E) environmental contributions to WS in a population-based sample of 1,503 female adult twins. RESULTS Modeling results were similar for participants reporting no binge eating (NBE) and those reporting binge eating plus loss of control (BE + LOC): 20-25% of the variance in WS was due to A and 70-75% due to E. Among NBE participants, restraint, drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and dieting during child/adulthood were related to WS. Restraint, disinhibition, and dieting during childhood were significantly associated with WS in the BE + LOC subsample. DISCUSSION Although maintaining lower body weight could be advantageous, interventionists should take care when addressing weight suppression in individuals vulnerable to eating disorder symptomatology.