Accuracy of estimates of forthcoming ingestion as a function of menu familiarity and dietary restraint.

Estimates of forthcoming intake were compared with amount eaten in women who were normal-weight restrained eaters, unrestrained eaters or overweight restrained eaters, for three four-course lunches of which the first consisted mainly of an Italian menu, the second and third mainly a Japanese menu. The differences between estimated and eaten amounts for the first and third lunch correlated negatively with degree of restraint. This indicates that those who score high on dietary restraint have learnt better ways of estimating their intake. No relation was found between the difference in estimated and eaten amount and degree of restraint during the second lunch. This indicates that the unfamiliarity of a meal makes it more difficult to predict how much of it would be satiating.