Examination of emotional appetite, eating behavior and eating expectancy in women on and off a weight loss diet

Emotional eating and eating expectations play an important role in weight loss attempts and regulation of eating behaviors. This study was conducted to evaluate emotional appetite, eating behavior and eating expectancy in 264 volunteer women aged 25-45 years, who had been on a weight loss diet and who had not been on a weight loss diet, and who applied to the Nutrition and Diet Polyclinic of a private medical center in Ankara. General characteristics, health information, eating habits, dietary history, anthropometric measurements and food consumption records were obtained, and the Emotional Appetite Questionnaire (EMAQ), the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) and the Eating Expectancies Inventory (EEI) were used. While the average age of 132 individuals who had been on a weight loss diet was found to be 35.08±6.38 years, the average age of 132 individuals and who had not been on a weight loss diet was found to be 35.91±6.27 years. The body weight (kg), BMI (kg/m2), waist circumference (cm), hip circumference (cm), waist/height ratio, fat percentage, fat mass (kg) and lean body mass (kg) values of individuals on a weight loss diet were found to be significantly higher than those of individuals not on a weight loss diet (p<0,001). It was determined that the subscale scores of alleviating distress, feeling out of control, managing rewarding, pleasurable and negative feelings, EMAQ negative, emotional eating, restrictive eating, external eating of individuals who were on a weight loss diet were significantly higher than individuals who were not on a weight loss diet (p<0,007, p<0,001, p<0,004, p<0,001, p<0,001, p<0,001, p<0,001, p<0,001, respectively). A positive and statistically significant relationship was found between emotional eating scores and the body weight (kg), hip circumference (cm) and body fat percentage in individuals on a weight loss diet (r=0,117, p=0,043; r=0,199, p=0,022; r=0,179, p=0,040, respectively). Women on weight loss diets are at risk for developing emotionally driven negative eating behaviors. Expectations of positive/negative reinforcement from eating and especially negative emotions should be considered in terms of the success of weight loss diets. Keywords: Eating behavior, eating expectations, emotional eating, restrictive eating, weight loss diet