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Cited by 17Eating Disorders and BehaviorsNutrition, Health and Food BehaviorNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Why Do Most Restrained Eaters Fail in Losing Weight?: Evidence from an fMRI Study

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Su, Yanhua, Bi, Taiyong, Gong, Gaolang, Jiang, Qiu, Chen, Hong·2019·Psychology Research and Behavior Management
DOI 10.2147/prbm.s228430PMC PMC6932934
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Restraint dieting is a key step in the avoidance of obesity and other eating problems, but why some restraint eaters (REs) succeed and some fail in dieting is unknown. The difference between successful REs (S-REs) and unsuccessful REs (US-REs) is still unknown. This is the first study to compare the fMRI reactivity among US-REs, S-REs and unrestrained eaters (UREs) in a food-related Go/NoGo paradigm. METHODS: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine the neural responses corresponding to the success of dieting in REs. Eighteen S-REs, 17 US-REs and 17 UREs were asked to perform a Go/No-Go task after being shown pictures of either high-caloric or low-caloric food. RESULTS: fMRI results revealed stronger activations for high-caloric food in areas associated with executive function and inhibition (i.e., middle frontal gyrus and cerebellum) among S-REs than among US-REs. In contrast, both US-REs and UREs showed stronger activations for low-caloric food in reward areas (i.e., orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)) than S-REs. CONCLUSION: Our results provide evidence that food temptations may trigger processes of successful inhibition control in S-REs, whereas US-REs may fail in resisting the attraction to high-caloric food, thereby showing a high probability of overeating.

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  • A recent fMRI study showed that successful restrained eaters had stronger activation in the middle frontal gyrus and cerebellum, suggesting that food temptations may trigger processes of positive inhibition in some, but not others.

    “A recent fMRI study showed that “successful” restrained eaters had stronger activation in the middle frontal gyrus and cerebellum (associated with executive function and inhibition) suggesting that food temptations may trigger processes of positive inhibition in some, but not others [200].”

    From Food Addiction and Psychosocial Adversity: Biological Embedding, Contextual Factors, and Public Health Implications (2020) · cites this paper as [200]

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1 of the 76 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [9]Herman C, Polivy J. Restrained eating In: Stunkard AJ, editor. Obesity. Philadelphia:: WB Saunders; 1980: 208– 225.
  2. [50]Crossman A, Neary DJN. Cerebellum. In: Neuroanatomy. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, USA: Churchill Livingstone; 2000: 117–124.

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Authors
Su, Y., Bi, T., Gong, G., Jiang, Q., & Chen, H.
Affiliations
  • Zunyi Medical University (CN)
  • Beijing Normal University (CN)
  • Southwest University (CN)
Corresponding author
Chen, Hong
ORCID
Venue
Psychology Research and Behavior Management
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2019-12
Volume
Volume 12
Pages
1127-1136
ISSN
1179-1578 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2147/prbm.s228430
PMC
PMC6932934
OpenAlex
W2996535188
Cited by
17
References
76
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 2
FWCI
0.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Psychology Research and Behavior Management (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Dove Medical Press (Taylor and Francis Group) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
Funders
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31771237)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
dietary restraint, weight loss, food temptation, inhibitory control, executive function, reward processing, orbitofrontal cortex, middle frontal gyrus, cerebellum, overeating, high-calorie foods, low-calorie foods, go/no-go task

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