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Dissertation
Rigid and flexible control of eating: prospective relation to weight loss and maintenance
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Sep 2002
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00008281
Abstract
The goals of obesity treatment are to decrease weight by not only changing behaviors associated with eating (place, tempo, type of food) but also by increasing restraint. Cognitive restraint is a way of approaching eating with the cognitive intent to restrict intake in order to lose or maintain body weight. Westenhoefer and colleagues broke restraint into two types of control over eating, namely rigid and flexible control (1991, 1994, 1996, 1999). Preliminary scales designed to measure these types of control have shown that flexible control (FC) over eating is correlated with greater degrees of weight loss, low BMI, and low susceptibility to eating problems. The opposite is true for rigid control (RC). The current study was designed to investigate the role of RC and FC in a weight loss program that entailed both a rigid diet phase and a flexible maintenance phase. Two sets of mediation analyses were employed to investigate the role of RC and FC throughout the program. In the diet phase, baseline RC and FC were tested as predictors of weight loss, and the average number of non-diet sanctioned kcals consumed was tested as the mediator. Results indicted that the consumption of excess calories did not affect weight loss and therefore could not serve as a mediator. Additionally, FC was found to predict smaller weight losses; and RC was found to have no relationship with weight loss. In the maintenance phase, change in control scores from pre-test to week 14 were used as predictors, with change in disinhibition scores (DIS) from pre-test to week 14 used as the mediator. Change in weight during the maintenance phase was the dependent variable. Results indicated that decreases in DIS mediated the effects of increases in FC on weight lost during the maintenance phase. Greater increases in FC during the first 14 weeks predicted better weight maintenance during the latter half of treatment. Exploratory analyses revealed that FC at post-treatment was a marginally significant predictor of poorer weight maintenance. Overall, FC predicted smaller weight losses leading to questions regarding the appropriateness of a rigid diet for those with high FC.
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Details
- Title
- Rigid and flexible control of eating
- Creators
- C. Alix Timko
- Contributors
- Michael R. Lowe (Advisor) - Drexel University, Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- x, 145 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology); College of Arts and Sciences; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991021888992604721