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Emotional Eating and Weight in Adults: a Review

December 2018
Current Psychology 37(5)

DOI:10.1007/s12144-017-9577-9

Authors:

Mallory Frayn

Drexel University

Bärbel Knäuper

McGill University

Emotional eating is the tendency to overeat in response to negative emotions and has shown to be associated with weight outcomes, both in respect to weight gain over time and difficulties with weight loss and weight loss maintenance. It is thus important to develop treatments to improve weight loss outcomes in emotional eaters. The purpose of this review is to explore adults’ relationship between emotional eating and weight by: (1) describing self-report measures used to assess emotional eating such as the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), and the Emotional Eating Scale (EES), (2) exploring the relationship between emotional eating and weight outcomes, namely examining weight gain in longitudinal studies and difficulties with weight loss and weight loss maintenance in intervention studies, and (3) reviewing current interventions that target emotional eating, using techniques such as mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). A better understanding of adults’ emotional eating and its impact on weight is important to develop interventions that effectively target weight loss struggles unique to emotional eaters and improve weight outcomes for this population.

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Emotional Eating and Weight in Adults: a Review

Mallory Frayn

&Bärbel Knäuper

Published online: 15 March 2017

#Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017

Abstract Emotional eating is the tendency to overeat in re-

sponse to negative emotions and has shown to be associated

with weight outcomes, both in respect to weight gain over time

and difficulties with weight loss and weight loss maintenance. It

is thus important to develop treatments to improve weight loss

outcomes in emotional eaters. The purpose of this review is to

explore adults’relationship between emotional eating and

weight by: (1) describing self-report measures used to assess

emotional eating such as the Dutch Eating Behavior

Questionnaire (DEBQ), the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire

(TFEQ), and the Emotional Eating Scale (EES), (2) exploring

the relationship between emotional eating and weight outcomes,

namely examining weight gain in longitudinal studies and diffi-

culties with weight loss and weight loss maintenance in inter-

vention studies, and (3) reviewing current interventions that tar-

get emotional eating, using techniques such as mindfulness,

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive

Behavior Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy

(DBT). A better understanding of adults’emotional eating and

its impact on weight is important to develop interventions that

effectively target weight loss struggles unique to emotional

eaters and improve weight outcomes for this population.

Keywords Emotional eating .Wei g ht .Weight loss .Review

Introduction

Emotional eating is defined as the Btendency to overeat in

response to negative emotions, such as anxiety or irritability^

(van Strien et al. 2007, p. 106). It is a highly prevalent concern

for those who struggle with their weight; it is suggested that

60% or more of individuals who are overweight or obese are

also emotional eaters (Ganley 1989). Emotional eaters are

particularly likely to consume foods high in fat, sugar, and

calories in response to negative emotions (Elfhag and

Rossner 2005). These eating habits in combination with in-

creased body weight place emotional eaters at higher risk for

developing diabetes and heart disease (e.g., Melanson 2007;

Wang et al. 2010). This population also struggles with weight

loss; emotional eaters are half as likely as non-emotional

eaters to achieve the 10% weight loss goal of standard behav-

ioral weight loss treatment (López-Guimerà et al. 2014).

Emotional eating is important to study because of its negative

effects on weight and overall health. Thus far very few inter-

ventions have incorporated the treatment of emotional eating

into weight loss interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to review the relationship be-

tween emotional eating and body weight in adults and to ex-

plore the current treatment options used to address these con-

cerns. To our knowledge, no such review exists. Other reviews

have outlined theoretical perspectives on emotional eating

(e.g., Canetti et al. 2002), have examined the prevalence of

emotional eating in a variety of samples (e.g., Gibson 2012),

and have reviewed studies using a certain treatment approach,

namely mindfulness interventions, for emotional eating (e.g.,

Katterman et al. 2014;O’Reilly et al. 2014). However, none of

these reviews have attempted to explicate the relationship be-

tween emotional eating and weight, nor have they thoroughly

evaluated treatment options for overweight or obese emotion-

al eaters. This review seeks to fill these gaps in the existing

*Mallory Frayn

mallory.frayn@mail.mcgill.ca

Bärbel Knäuper

barbel.knauper@mcgill.ca

Department of Psychology, McGill University, Stewart Biology

Building, 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1,

Canada

Curr Psychol (2018) 37:924–933

DOI 10.1007/s12144-017-9577-9

Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.

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