Dietary restraint as a predictor of reported weight loss and affect.

This study investigated dietary restraint as a predictor of subsequent reported weight loss. Neither chronic dieters nor nondieters reported actually losing weight over a 7-mo. period. With respect to recent weight change, restrained eaters reported both more recent weight loss and more recent weight gain than unrestrained eaters. Further, such weight changes had a much larger influence on their affect. It was concluded that chronic dieting is likely to produce temporary swings in both weight and mood but no permanent change. As such, chronic dieters might best be advised to abandon their dieting attempts.