“…Extensive reviews on the potential mechanisms driving the bidirectional association between obesity and depression can be found elsewhere [3][4][5] and undoubtedly involve a number of psychological (e.g., self-esteem) [5], behavioral (e.g., repeated dieting) [5], and physiological (e.g., glucocorticoids) [6] mechanisms. While depression resulting from obesity may be caused by dysregulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and neurological alterations (e.g., decreased synaptic excitability) [7][8][9], depression may also result in overweight/obesity through an increased desire to consume calorie-rich foods [10,11]. Physical activity may play a critical role in mitigating this bidirectional association as it has been shown to reduce the risk of overweight/obesity [12] and depression [13,14], plausibly due to its reduction on HPA axis activity [15], as well as, of course, other factors such as increased energy expenditure [16] and improved self-esteem [5].…”