Success & Failure of Dieting Flashcards
What are the 3 basic forms of dieting?
1) Restricting total amount of food
2) Refraining from eating certain types of food
3) Avoiding eating for long periods of time
What is dieting?
Form of restricted eating involving the voluntary restriction of food intake
Outline dieting in evolutionary terms
May have been adaptive because it would have had an adaptive value in times of food scarcity
Outline Bartlett (03)
USA statistics: over 50% are obese or overweight and there are 300,000 deaths a year credited to preventable weight-related conditions
How did Wing & Hill (01) define how successful dieting is and how many actually succeed in this?
‘Successful long-term weight loss maintenance, involving the intentional loss of at least 10% of initial body weight and keeping it off for at least one year’
20% succeed in doing this
What percentage of women have tried to diet in the UK?
89%
Who came up with the restraint theory?
Herman & Mack (75)
Summarise restraint theory
Attempting to not eat actually increases the probability of overeating
What did Herman & Polivy (84) come up with?
The boundary model
Who came up with the boundary model?
Herman & Polivy (84)
Explain the boundary model
Created to explain why dieting may lead to overeating - hunger keeps intake of food above a certain minimum - satiety works to keep intake below some maximum level - between the 2 levels, psychological factors have the greatest impact on consumption - dieters tend to have larger range between hunger and satiety levels as it takes them longer to feel hungry and more food to satisfy them - in addition, restrained eaters have self-imposed desired intake - one over this boundary, continue to eat until they reach satiety (beyond the max level imposed as part of their diet)
What does satiety mean?
Satisfaction of hunger
What study provides support for restraint theory?
Wardle & Beale (88)
Outline Wardle & Beale (88)
Randomly assigned 27 obese women to either diet group (focusing on restrained eating patterns), an exercise group or a non-treatment group for 7 weeks - week 4, food intake and appetite assessed before and after a preload (small snack) - week 6, food intake assessed under stressful conditions - results showed both assessment sessions, women in diet condition ate more than women in exercise and non-treatment groups - thus implying overeating caused by dieting itself
How did Herman & Polivy (84) explain common failure of dieting?
Dieters could not be bothered to maintain dieting as too much effort - suggests a cognitive shift in thinking involving breakdown of self-control
What did Herman & Polivy find about the effect of mood on dieting behaviour?
Dieters overeat to shift responsibility for negative moods onto eating behaviour
What did Ogden (03) say about the effect of having a list of ‘forbidden foods’?
The more they try to suppress thoughts, the more preoccupied they become with them - suggests denial actually creates more pressure to break up a diet
How do slimming clubs deal with the problem of ‘forbidden foods’?
By allowing dieters to have specific number of them or these forbidden foods in small amounts - having them in moderation
Outline Keys (50)
Conscientious war objectors were given half of their normal daily food intake for 12 weeks and on average they lost about 25% of their body weight - they became so obsessed with food they hoarded or even stole it, thinking of little else - suggests restrained thinking leads to alteration in cognitive state
Name the 2 aspects of the success and failure of dieting
1) Restraint theory
2) The role of denial
Name 2 positive evaluative points for restraint theory
1) Research support
2) Implications for obesity treatment
Explain the implications for obesity treatment for restraint theory
The theory suggests restraint leads to excess, yet treatment of obesity commonly recommends restraint as solution to excessive weight gain - however, failed attempts to diet can leave obese individuals depressed, feeling a failure and unable to control their weight - although obesity may not necessarily be caused by overeating, overeating may be a consequence of obesity if restraint is recommended as a treatment
Name and explain the main negative evaluative point about restraint theory
Methodological techniques are lab-based and artificial so little relevance to real-life behaviour - studies use self-monitoring and find that some dieters often do eat less than unrestrained eaters
Summarise the role of denial
Research has shown attempting to suppress or deny a though frequently has the opposite effect, making it even more prominent