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I am writing to suggest that at least
seven major adjustments are needed. Be-
cause the authors used research on dieting
to support their thesis, the validity of their
arguments rests in part on the validity of
their assumptions about dieting. My com-
ments focus on those assumptions.
1. Polivy and Herman (2002) noted
that chronic dieters (or restrained eaters)
are an interesting group because “they have
resolved to change themselves (by dieting
to lose weight) and are very likely to fail”
(pp. 678–679). They failed to mention two
contradictory facts: Most restrained eaters
are not currently dieting to lose weight, and
those that are show improved, not wors-
ened, eating regulation (Lowe, 1993, 2002).
2. Polivy and Herman (2002) consid-
ered several explanations for why people
keep trying to lose weight when most diets
fail. They overlooked an explanation that is
probably at least as important as those they
consider. Most dieters decide to diet not
just for the anticipated (and often illusory)
benefits of weight loss, but because they
are very distressed about their recent lack
of eating and weight control. For instance,
most overweight people who join weight
loss programs feel out of control of their
eating and are near the highest weight they
have ever been. They often feel desperate;
going on a diet is negatively reinforced
because it immediately reduces their dis-
tress. Thus, even if incipient dieters openly
acknowledged that their weight loss was
unlikely to be long-lasting, their desire to
do something about their weight is not as
paradoxical as the authors suggest.
3. A similar comment applies at the
population level. Polivy and Herman (2002)
focused entirely on the perceived personal
consequences of being overweight and of
losing weight, completely overlooking the
fact that the prevalence of obesity has in-
creased dramatically in the past 20 years.
Virtually all medical and behavioral scien-
tists studying obesity agree that it is a
major contributor to a variety of serious
medical diseases and significantly impairs
quality of life. Weight loss substantially
reduces these problems. Thus, at a popula-
tion level we don’t need less dieting; we
need to learn how to help people restrict
their caloric intake and maintain such re-
strictions more effectively.
4. Polivy and Herman (2002) stated
that “dieters, for example, might succeed
more often if their diet goals were adjusted
to be more realistic” (p. 680). However, the
authors have themselves advocated the
elimination of dieting (Polivy & Herman,
1992). Their own “undieting” program for
obese individuals, which eliminates weight
loss as a treatment goal (Polivy & Herman,
1992), in fact produces no weight loss.
From a health perspective, this outcome is
probably worse than losing weight and then
regaining it over several years.
5. Given Polivy and Herman’s (2002)
general condemnation of dieting, they would
presumably be particularly critical of diets
using meal replacements such as Slim Fast or
Optifast. Weight lost on such diets would
presumably be rapidly regained. However,
several recent studies that used meal replace-
ments, not only for weight loss but for weight
loss maintenance, have found dramatically
better, not worse, results compared with
lifestyle programs not using meal replace-
ments (e.g., Ditschuneit, Fletchtner-Mors,
Johnson, & Adler, 1999). These and simi-
lar approaches represent true, rather than
false, hope.
6. It is not accurate to say there is
“general agreement that weight cycling is
harmful” (Polivy & Herman, 2002, p. 684).
The evidence is mixed, with many studies
showing no ill effects. In fact, a number of
studies have shown that weight cycling is
not even related to binge eating (e.g., Bart-
lett, Wadden, & Vogt, 1996). Polivy and
Herman also did not give consideration to
the very real possibility that when relation-
ships between weight cycling and behav-
ioral outcomes (like binge eating) are
found, weight cycling could be a conse-
quence of binge eating (and weight gain and
the subsequent need to diet), not its cause.
7. Polivy and Herman (2002) de-
scribed a variety of negative psychological
and emotional effects of weight loss and
weight regain. It is no surprise that weight
regain is distressing, but there is substantial
evidence (that the authors did not cite)
that weight loss is not psychologically
harmful and does have beneficial effects
(Smoller, Wadden, & Stunkard, 1987; Wad-
den, Womble, Stunkard, & Anderson, 2002).
Also, according to Polivy and Herman’s
viewpoint, those rare individuals who lose
substantial weight and keep it off presum-
ably would pay a high price (in the form of
emotional distress, periodic binge eating,
etc.) because of the constant struggle re-
quired to do so. However, evidence from
the National Weight Control Registry (Klem,
Wing, McGuire, Seagle, & Hill, 1998) in-
dicates that this is not the case.
In conclusion, the false hope syn-
drome theory developed by Polivy and
Herman (2002) is only as valid as the as-
sumptions about dieting on which their ar-
guments are based. Several modifications
to these assumptions are warranted: It is
not at all clear that it is worse to have
dieted and regained the weight over several
years than to not have dieted at all (espe-
cially when nondieting individuals are likely
to gain weight over the same period); it
appears that even among normal weight
restrained eaters, the primary problem is
not dieting but is a predisposition toward
overeating and weight gain; and from a
population perspective, the biggest threat is
not failed dieting but unrelenting weight
gain and epidemic obesity.
REFERENCES
Bartlett, S. J., Wadden, T. A., & Vogt, R. A.
(1996). Psychosocial consequences of weight
cycling. Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, 64, 587–592.
Ditschuneit, H. H., Fletchtner-Mors, M., John-
son, T. D., & Adler, G. (1999). Metabolic and
weight-loss effects of a long-term dietary in-
tervention in obese patients. American Jour-
nal of Clinical Nutrition, 69, 198–204.
Klem, M. L., Wing, R. R., McGuire, M. T.,
Seagle, H. M., & Hill, J. O. (1998). Psycho-
logical symptoms in individuals successful at
long-term maintenance of weight loss. Health
Psychology, 17, 336–345.
Lowe, M. R. (1993). The effects of dieting on
eating behavior: A three-factor model. Psy-
chological Bulletin, 114, 100–122.
Lowe, M. R. (2002). Dietary restraint and over-
eating. In C. Fairburn & K. Brownell (Eds.),
Eating disorders and obesity: A comprehen-
sive handbook (2nd ed., pp. 88–92). New
York: Guilford.
Polivy, J., & Herman, C. P. (1992). Undieting: A
program to help people stop dieting. Interna-
tional Journal of Eating Disorders, 11, 261–
268.
Polivy, J., & Herman, C. P. (2002). If at first you
don’t succeed: False hopes of self-change.
American Psychologist, 57, 677–689.
Smoller, J. W., Wadden, T., & Stunkard, A. J.
(1987). Dieting and depression: A critical re-
view. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 31,
429–440.
Wadden, T. A., Womble, L. G., Stunkard, A. J.,
& Anderson, D. A. (2002). Psychosocial con-
sequences of obesity and weight loss. In T. A.
Wadden & A. J. Stunkard (Eds.), Handbook of
obesity treatment (pp. 144–169). New York:
Guilford.
Correspondence concerning this comment should
be addressed to Michael R. Lowe, Drexel Uni-
versity—Mail Stop 626, 245 North 15th Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19102-1192. E-mail: lowe@
drexel.edu
DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.58.10.820
The Case Against False Hope
C. R. Snyder and Kevin L. Rand
University of Kansas, Lawrence
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways
that won’t work.” —Thomas Edison
820 October 2003 ●American Psychologist
