Assessment of the effect of weight management over eating behavior in women

Present study has been conducted to measure the effect of weight management on the eating behavior of overweight and obese women. The study took place at the Diet Polyclinic of Istanbul Faculty of Medicine's Department of Internal Medicine between December 2013 and February 2014 and on 50 overweight or obese women between the ages of 19 and 64. During the initial interview, the individuals' demographic characteristics, dietary habits, anthropometric measurements were collected, their levels of physical activities were determined and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), evaluating three distinct eating behaviors (restricted eating, emotional eating and external eating) of these individuals, was conducted.Following the initial interview, a personalized weight loss dietary program was developed for every individual alongside provision of nutritional education. At the end of 12 weeks of study, changes in body weight and anthropometric measurements were recorded and Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire re-applied in order to find out if there have been any changes in the individuals' eating behaviors. Average age of individuals participating in the study was determined as 37.8 ± 11.4 years. Prior to the start of dietary program, average body weight of the individuals was 92,5±17,55 kg and body mass index was 34,6 ± 5,9 kg/m2. At the end of the 12-week dietary program the average body weight of the individuals dropped to 85,3±16,8 kg and the average body mass index to 32 ± 5,82 kg/m2.All anthropometric changes were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). 80% of the individuals had dieted at least once in the past prior to study. The number of diets that the individuals had applied in their past, their initial emotional and their external scores were all positively correlated and this was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). However, no significant statistical relationship was found between the initial restricted score and the number of diets applied in the past (p>0.05). Following the analysis of presence of family support during past diet experiences and initial DEBQ scores, it was found with statistical significance (p<0.05) that the individuals who had not received family support during their dieting experiences had higher emotional and external scores compared to the individuals who had received such support. The individuals' macronutrient intakes were compared with their respective DEBQ scores and no statistically significant correlation was found between these scores and the amount of energy and macronutrient intakes of the individuals during the 12 weeks of the diet (p>0.05). Differences were observed between the scores of the two Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaires applied before the start of diet and at end of the 12-week period and these were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). It can then be concluded that body weight loss results in an improvement in eating behavior.