Success And Failure Of Dieting

Question 1

dieting

Answer 1

a conscious attempt to loose weight by restricting food intake

Question 2

hedonic dieting

Answer 2

those who struggle with maintaining diets may be more sensitive to pleasurable properties in food
due to the increase in sensitivity towards the perception of attractive food, triggering a desire to eat and conflict any diet goals

Question 3

spiral model

Answer 3

heatherton + polivy
- proposed that dieting is like a chain of linked events, begins in adolesence, experience body dissatisfaction and low-self esteem
- initially, first time dieters loose weight, but this is rare and usually results in weight gain, therefore fails
- some may give up, which is an attribute of will power

Question 4

spiral model continued

Answer 4

• instead of re-thinking, sticks to same plan but eats even less, larger physical and psychological effects
• frustration and emotional distress therefore more vulnerable to disinhibited eating
• metabolism changing makes loosing weight more difficult
• ghrelin up, increases drive to eat
• leptin down, disinhibts hunger

Question 5

theory of ironic processes

Answer 5

asked pts not to think about a white bear, almost guarenteed they would even when not asked
paradoxical outcome of supressing a thought makes it more likely
disinhibited eating > loss of control > excessive food intake > diet failure

Question 6

redden - key to a successful diet

Answer 6

key is to pay attention to what is being eaten
like experiences less as they repeat them, should focus on specific details of each meal, getting bored less easily leads to being able to maintain a diet better
(jelly beans)

Question 7

disinhibition

Answer 7

makes dieters vulnerable to food-related cues so they occasionally loose control of eating and binge on forbidden foods

Question 8

boundary model

Answer 8

dieters try to stop at a lower boundary, but sometimes fail and continue to eat past the point they feel full

Question 9

AO3 - free will vs determinism

Answer 9

• number of genetic factors influence weight, may be determined by other factors than just lifestyles choice
• struggle to loose weight regardless of intentions

Question 10

support for ironic processes theory

Answer 10

• investigated snacking behaviour in females , trying to cut down unhealthy snacks
• group presented with diet intentions of a negative form; when sad i won’t eat chocolate, and one control
• exposure to negative statement triggered ironic processses
• thinking about being on a diet can lead to failure of a diet

Question 11

real world application

Answer 11

• concerns about in effectiveness of dieting programmes has led to development of replacing diets with conventional healthy eating
• regulation of body hunger and satiety signals
• meta-analysis Gray, confirmed these improved physical and psychological well being

Question 12

use of the spiral model

Answer 12

• proposes several ways of dieting can be succesful involving breaking out the spiral at several points
• preven lowering self-estmee to avoid worst conseuqences of diet failre
• doesn’t address that low self estmee started the motivation to diet in the first place
• best option is to promote self-estmee and end attempt to loose weight by accepting ones self