Dieting, restraint and disinhibition

Question 1

Diet industry

Answer 1

dieting boomed in 1960s
weight watchers - 1 million members, £18 million profits in 2013
lots of members don’t have weight to lose but clearly encouraged to join anyway

Question 2

Motives for weight loss

Answer 2

appearance, health, mood (O’brien et al 2007)
positive intentions and less positive attitudes toward target foods associated with greater success (Ogden et al 2007)
low motivation, self-esteem, increased body dissatisfaction and increased dieting attempts associated with reduced success (Teixeira et al 2002)

Question 3

Seasonality of dieting

Answer 3

people may diet more in spring to ‘prepare’ bodies for summer
consequence of seasonal body dissatisfaction, strongest in summer
highest dieting hashtags in spring, functions as ‘best time to lose weight’ ahead of summer, potential causes: appearance pressure from media, peers, feeling one’s body is on public display and appearance comparisons (Griffiths et al 2022)
may be more intense for those with current/susceptibilities to eating disorders
hashtags peak for appearance and non-appearance orientated diets, so environmental, animal, personal welfare diets may be motivated by body image/disordered eating, hiding concerns from clinicians (Zickgraf et al 2020)

Question 4

Body dissatisfaction

Answer 4

discrepancy between perceived body size and ideal body size, feelings of discontent with shape/size
perceived pressure to be thin, thin-ideal internalisation and elevated body mass linked to body dissatisfaction, dieting and negative affect are mediating variables between body dissatisfaction and eating pathology (Stice & Shaw 2002)

Question 5

Calorie restriction diets

Answer 5

weight watchers, slimming world, meal prepping (can be monotonous)

Question 6

Set point theory

Answer 6

genetics play role in determining weight, body defends set point so does dietary restriction go against homeostatic processes? (Harris 1990)

Question 7

Food combining/hay diet

Answer 7

creating ideal digestive environment by considering acidic/alkaline foods
not scientifically backed up

Question 8

blood type diet

Answer 8

immune response to food varies according to blood type

Question 9

single food diets

Answer 9

short-term weight loss but likely to regain in long-term

Question 10

Paleo/caveman diet (high protein)

Answer 10

meat, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruit/veg
but ancestors weren’t necessarily healthy (life expectancy of 40)

Question 11

Atkins/keto diet (high protein)

Answer 11

CHO causes weight gain so reduced sugar and refined CHOs, nutrient dense unprocessed foods
leads to rapid weight loss, good short term weight reduction for medical reasons, reduces appetite (monotony)
but increases risk of CHD/cancer, high in sat fats and cholesterol, goes against food pyramid/balanced diet, deficient in vitamins/minerals, cognitive implications of low glucose availability, limited evidence

Question 12

Freshman diet

Answer 12

college freshman show sig increase in BMI, fat mass, weight and obesity (Butler et al 2004)
transition to college often accompanied by reduction in PA and increased high-fat foods and alcohol (Anderson et al 2003)
weight suppression predicted weight gain, suggesting even low levels of weight suppression contribute to accelerated gain in future but may be current/past dieters are predictive as they’re proxies of obesity-proneness (Lowe et al 2006)

Question 13

Restraint

Answer 13

deliberate attempt to inhibit food intake to maintain weight or prevent weight gain (Herman & Mack 1975)
self-imposed dietary rules so requires conscious effort
chronic on-again, off-again dieting pattern of restrainers contributes to appetite dysregulation, disordered eating, eventual weight gain (Polivy & Herman 1985)

Question 14

Restraint scales

Answer 14

measured with revised restraint scale, three factor eating questionnaire or Dutch eating behaviour questionnaire
high scores on RS and DEBQ characterised by both successful and unsuccessful restriction but hard to distinguish
need to distinguish restrained eating and current dieting as they aim to lose or avoid gaining weight so two-factor measurement needed (restraint and tendency to disinhibit/overeat) (Lowe 1993)
high scores predict future binge eating and bulimic pathology (Stice et al 2002)
may not be valid measure as self-reported caloric intake is inaccurate, those high in restraint are most likely to underreport so restraint may not be factor increasing risk of bulimia (Stice & Lowe 2004)

Question 15

Types of restrainers

Answer 15

Flexible - low disinhibition, lower BMI/binges/energy intake, higher chance of weight loss
rigid restrainers - high disinhibition

Question 16

Disinhibition

Answer 16

tendency for restrained eaters to overeat due to inability to maintain cognitive control

Question 17

Disinhibition factors

Answer 17

perceived caloric content, ‘forbidden foods’, higher susceptibility to temptations, food cues (sight, smell), negative affect

Question 18

Impact of disinhibition

Answer 18

linked to higher BMI, poor success when dieting, less healthy food choices, low self-esteem, low PA, bingeing, may have been advantageous when food was scarce but not now (Bryant et al 2008)
low restrained eaters ate less after high-cal preload, high restrained overconsumed (counter compensation) (Herman & Mack 1975)

Question 19

External eating

Answer 19

inability to resist environmental cues, sensory inhibition of eating (Braet & van Strien 1997)
personality trait linked with obesity

Question 20

Boundary model

Answer 20

dieters have cognitive barrier below satiety level so when preload goes beyond this they carry on eating to satiety which is often higher as chronically in energy depleted state (Herman & Polivy 1984)

Question 21

Distraction and intake

Answer 21

immediate and delayed increase in intake after distracted food consumption, pay attention linked to reduced intake and enhanced food memory (Robinson et al 2013)
may interrupt SSS process - non-distracted showed reduced desire to eat jaffa cakes in comparison to uneaten food, distracted maintained desire to eat all foods (Brunstrom & Mitchell 2006)
consumption of snack food 30% lower after focused condition but memory for meal not changed (Robinson et al 2014)

Question 22

Attentive eating

Answer 22

devoid of distractions, may be important for weight loss, prompting memory recall of food previously consumed, being aware of food consumed, enhancing memory of food consumed

Question 23

Cognitive control of eating

Answer 23

dieters report higher preoccupying cognitions than non-dieters - spend more time thinking about food, associated with deficits in functioning of working memory components

Question 24

limited cognitive capacity hypothesis

Answer 24

disinhibited intake occurs if there are limitations on cognitive capacity regardless of emotional components, higher restrainers ate more when distracted than unrestrained (Boon et al 2002)
restrainers have poorer ability on working memory tasks (Green & Rogers 1998) and worse performance on CE and PL tasks (Tiggemann & Marshall 2004) as preoccupying thoughts are mediator between restraint and cognitive performance

Question 25

Abstinence violation effect

Answer 25

negative cognitive, attributive and affective response when returning to substance after period of self-imposed abstinence (Marlatt & Gordon 1985)
linked to bulimia and dieting success (Moon et al 1992)