“People sometimes develop depression as a result of being overweight”, says Michael Bowen, “and it is largely because of today's skewed standards of beauty, with too much emphasis placed on the "size zero" ideal”.

Being overweight can put serious limitations on a person in that it puts restrictions on the activities that person can do, the job opportunities open to them, the relationships they can make, the clothes they can buy.

They are also often taunted by pranksters and mean people around them because of their weight. All of these can put a huge dent on a person's self-esteem, and too much of it can lead to depression.

On the other hand, depression can also cause one to be overweight. When one suffers from clinical depression, he or she often loses the motivation to be active, much less workout.

They pay less attention to the food they eat and they don't sleep well. The resulting fatigue from lack of sleep can cause them to overeat, and overeating without sufficient burning of calories can lead to excessive weight gain. The excessive weight gain can, in turn, worsen one's depression, leading to the creation of a vicious cycle that can be difficult to get out of.

This book entitled Depressive Weight Loss: How to Feel Comfortable in Your Own Skin During Your Efforts to Lose Weight is a short read on how one can deal with depression and combine this with the effort to lose weight. The book illustrates the need to lose weight as a way to combat depression and get out of the vicious cycle of depression and weight gain.