Psychology and wellbeing - Emotional Eaters Susceptible To Weight Regain

A new study finds that dieters who have the tendency to eat in response to external factors, such as at festive celebrations, have fewer problems with their weight loss than those who eat in response to emotions (internal factors).

The study also found that emotional eating was associated with weight regain in successful losers.

"We found that the more people report eating in response to thoughts and feelings, such as, 'when I feel lonely, I console myself by eating,' the less weight they lost in a behavioral weight loss program.

In addition, amongst successful weight losers, those who report emotional eating are more likely to regain," says lead author Heather Niemeier of Brown University.

This is important, the authors note, because one of greatest challenges facing the field of obesity treatment remains the problem of weight regain following weight loss.

"Participants in behavioral weight loss programs lose an average of 10 percent of their body weight and these losses are associated with significant health benefits. Unfortunately, the majority of participants return to their baseline weight within three to five years," Niemeier says.

In this study, researchers analyzed individual's responses to a questionnaire widely used in obesity research called the Eating Inventory. The Eating Inventory is a clinical tool that is designed to assess three aspects of eating behavior in individuals -- cognitive restraint, hunger, and disinhibition.

Specifically, Niemeier and her team focused on the disinhibition component of the Eating Inventory. "The disinhibition scale evaluates impulsive eating in response to emotional, cognitive, or social cues.

Participants in the study included two groups of individuals. The first group consisted of 286 overweight men and women who were currently participating in a behavioral weight loss program. The second group included 3,345 members of the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), an ongoing study of adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least one year.

Upon examination, the researchers found that the components within the disinhibition scale could be grouped into two distinct factors -- external and internal disinhibition.

External disinhibition describes experiences that are external to the individual such as, "When I am with someone who is overeating, I usually overeat, too" and "I usually eat too much at social occasions, like parties and picnics".

Internal disinhibition refers to eating in response to thoughts and feelings that are internal to the individual and includes emotional eating such as, "When I feel lonely, I console myself by eating" and "While on a diet, if I eat a food that is not allowed, I often splurge and eat other high calorie foods".

Results showed that in both groups of participants, internal disinhibition was a significant predictor of weight over time.

For participants in the weight loss program, the higher the level of internal disinhibition, the less weight an individual lost over time. The same was true for maintainers in the NWCR in that internal disinhibition predicted weight regain over the first year of registry membership.

"Interestingly, external disinhibition did not predict weight loss or regain in either sample at any time," notes Niemeier.

In addition, the authors note that internal disinhibition predicted weight change over time above and beyond other psychological issues including depression, binge eating, and perceived stress.

"Our results suggest that we need to pay more attention to eating triggered by emotions or thoughts as they clearly play a significant role in weight loss." says Niemeier.

The study is published in the October 2007 issue of Obesity.

Adapted from LifeSpan

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