Another study that examined chronic dieters as measured by the Restraint Scale found that they were more driven to diet to prevent weight gain rather than to become objectively thin. That is, restrained eaters, especially those identified by the more moderate restraint scales like the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, may be looking to prevent weight gain, whereas individuals who score high on the Restraint Scale or who report specifically dieting with the intention to lose weight may represent a different type of individual. This supports the notion that the effects of a current diet versus a history of repeated dieting may be quite different.įinally, there has been very little research on the importance of the motivation for dieting or restrained eating (i.e., to lose weight versus to avoid weight gain), but this distinction appears to be quite influential. Although restrained eaters as measured by the Restraint Scale may exhibit the counterregulatory eating pattern, restrained eaters who are currently on a diet typically do not. Additionally, restrained eating and dieting have different effects on eating behavior in the laboratory setting. Alternatively, individuals who are currently dieting to lose weight do reduce caloric intake at least in the short term to the extent that they experience any weight loss as a result of their diet. Notably, there are several studies that have shown that restrained eaters as identified by all three restraint measures do not actually eat less in the natural environment compared to unrestrained eaters when using sophisticated techniques to measure their intake (e.g., doubly labeled water to assess energy intake). More recent evidence suggests that the distinction between restrained eating measures and measures of actual dieting to lose weight may reflect different constructs. Since the Restraint Scale taps more of the chronicity of on-and-off dieting, and evidence suggests that individuals who score high on this scale have repeatedly dieted in the past, the perspectives outlined here focus mostly on what chronic dieting as measured by the Restraint Scale might mean for normal-weight and overweight or obese individuals. A review of the items on each of these measures indicates that while all tap eating restriction to some degree, the two newer measures may tap a more pure measure of attempts to restrict eating, whereas the Restraint Scale also appears to measure alternations between periods of overeating and restriction. The most commonly used measures are the Restraint Scale and two newer measures: the restraint subscales of the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (i.e., the Eating Inventory) and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Though these measures of restrained eating are often used interchangeably, research suggests they may be tapping different constructs. Evidence in support of this reconceptualization of chronic dieting and what it means is reviewed here.Ĭhronic dieting is often assessed using one of the three measures of restrained eating. Alternatively, it is possible that the construct being tapped in these ‘chronic dieters’ is not an unhealthy drive to be objectively thin that might set them up for eating disorders but simply attempts at counteracting a pull they feel toward gaining weight, given our current obesogenic environment. Therefore, it is an open question to whether or not counterregulatory eating styles in the laboratory have implications for real-world eating disorders. Approximately 50% of college females have a susceptibility to this counterregulatory eating pattern in the laboratory, but eating disorder diagnoses are much rarer. However, it is important to distinguish between chronic dieting as measured by the Restraint Scale and its associated eating dysregulation in the laboratory setting (e.g., the counterregulatory eating pattern displayed as part of the preload experiment) from eating disorders in the real world. Katterman, in Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance, 2012 Critique of the Restrained Eating Scales and What They Claim to MeasureĪs mentioned above, the Restraint Scale has been used by authors such as Herman and Polivy as an analogue of the process that sometimes produces eating disorders.