Dieting hardest for emotional eaters: study

Dieting hardest for emotional eaters: study
French fries are shown in Hollywood, California October 3, 2007. Emotional eaters -- people who eat when they are lonely or blue -- tend to lose the least amount of weight and have the hardest time keeping it off, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)CHICAGO (Reuters) - Emotional eaters -- people who eat whenthey are lonely or blue -- tend to lose the least amount ofweight and have the hardest time keeping it off, U.S.researchers said on Thursday.
They said the study may explain why so many people who loseweight gain it all back.
"We found that the more people report eating in response tothoughts and feelings, the less weight they lost," HeatherNiemeier, an obesity researcher at The Miriam Hospital and TheWarren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said in astatement.
"Amongst successful weight losers, those who reportemotional eating are more likely to regain," said Niemeier,whose study appears in the journal Obesity.
The study included 286 overweight men and women who wereparticipating in a behavioral weight loss program.
A second group consisted of more than 3,300 adults who havelost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least one year.
Niemeier and her team analyzed responses to an eatinginventory questionnaire.
They focused on people who ate because of externalinfluences, such as people who eat too much at parties, andpeople who ate because of internal influences, such as feelinglonely or as a reward.
What they found is that the more a person ate for internalreasons, the less weight they lost over time.
"Our results suggest that we need to pay more attention toeating triggered by emotions or thoughts as they clearly play asignificant role in weight loss," Niemeier said.
The study was funded by a grant from the NationalInstitutes of Health.