Explanations for the success and failure of diets

What is a Diet?

What is a Diet?

1.The usual food and drink of a person or animal.

2. A regulated selection of foods, as for medical reasons or cosmetic weight loss.

Cultural Ideals of body image

Body Dissatisfaction

Diets

Types of Diets

1. Restrict

2. Refrain

3. Avoid

Restraint Theory89% of females in the UK have consciously RESTRAINED

their food intake at some time

Attempting not to eat actually increases the probability of over eating

Herman & Mark (1995)

(Wardle & Beales 1988)

Restrained diet Excercise Non-treatment

Ate more

WHY?

Boundary Model

SatiationHunger

Hunger – keeps food intake ABOVE a certain minimumSatiation – works to keep food intake BELOW a certain maximum, between thispsychological factors impact consumption,

Dieters have a larger boundary between hunger and satiation and therefore the impact of psychological factors on food intake is greater

Psychologicalfactors

Denial

The theory of the ironic process of mental control…

Denial backfires, as soon as food is denied it becomes attractive

Evaluation of Restraint Theory

If restraint leads to excess and obesity is treated with restraint diets, obese people will be left depressed at failure… therefore overeating may be consequence of obesity

Ogden 1994

Restraint Theory

Cannot explain the restrictingbehaviour of anorexics

When do Diets Succeed?

When do Diets Succeed?

The key to success appears to be down to the attention we pay to what we eat, repetitive meals become boring and therefore difficult to stick to, therefore we need to focus on the detail of the meal.. (Redden 2008)

Research

Healthy eating programmes

Research shows that replacing DIETS with healthy eating programmes prevent inappropriate attitudes to food

Cabbage Soup dietComfort/Avoidance

Healthy Eating Programmes…

ImprovedSelf esteem

Improved behaviour Weight stability

In a meta-analysis Higgins & Gray (1999) found

Issues & Debates

Determinism

The role of Lipoprotein lipase (LPL)

Gene

Enzyme LPL (produced in fat cells - stores calories as fat)

90 P’s lost weight LPL measured before/after

LPL ROSE after weight loss

Levels were highest in those more overweight to start with

Cultural differences