Triggers of overeating and related intervention strategies for women who weight cycle.

The purpose of this study was to describe overeating episodes of overweight women who weight cycle compared with women of normal weight. Repeated overeating can be a major source of excess calories that may lead to weight gain in women who have weight cycled. Interview transcripts about overeating episodes of 45 women were subjected to a content analysis in a qualitative secondary analysis of data. Four patterns emerged from the data: planned overeating, power/control, relationships with others, and unpleasant feelings. Three intervention strategies are described to assist women who have weight cycled to understand and deal with feelings that trigger overeating, including strategies to stop overeating, feel their feelings, and fight fairly.