failure of dieting

• restraint theory= (herman and mack) restricting intake can lead to disinhibition and overeating
• boundary model (herman and polivy) biological limits to hunger/satiety ignores. during dieting, excessive repressing of these feelings can lead to binge eating
• ironic process theory (wegner)= trying to suppress thoughts of food increases focus on them
• emotional eating- using food as coping for stress- leading to failure
• empirical research support for failure of dieting- herman and mack (1975) , dieters and non dieters given milkshake, then asked to eat ice cream. dieters, who had already 'broken' their diet with a milkshake ate more than the non dieters- supports restraint theory however lab setting eco validity low
• research for ironic process theory- wegner et al- asked participants to either think about a white bear and others to not think about a white bear, found that those who were asked not to think about the bear did more, this means that this same theory may be applicable to dieting as it can provide evidence for those who set cognitive self-restriction boundaries but binge
• cummings et al (2002)'s research shows us that participants who had a higher rate of lower calorie restriction had a 24% increase in leptin production, meaning we are biologically driven to eat more food when dieting