How can I use different psychological and behavioral constructs to personalize my weight management? Developing a dieting style

PMID: 33940053 DOI: 10.1016 / j.appet.2021.105272

Commentary

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether it is possible to identify distinct combinations of key psychological diet-related characteristics and whether these styles are associated with measures of diet success.

Participants, who were at least 18 years old with access to the Internet, were recruited through Facebook and completed a 30-minute online survey.

The survey included measurements of 23 different factors related to personality, eating behavior, and current weight management, and 1047 people completed the complete survey. Factor analysis using the maximum likelihood extraction method with Promax rotation resulted in the extraction of five new factors.

Temptation (including craving and experiencing difficulty in controlling food)

Foodie (higher involvement and engagement with food)

Overthinking (neuroticism, behavioral inhibition, and perfectionism)

Social (extraversion and cooperativeness)

Impulsivity (impulsiveness, decreased integrity, increased pursuit of pleasure)

Factors such as consumption of vegetables, frequency of food attempts, self-rated health, and other behaviors, each related to the direction expected by the bivariate, were also used in the analysis.

Each possible dietary style will be further described and interpreted in the context of the existing literature, with a focus on how understanding these can help to personalize future interventions.

Future work will test this structure with a variety of samples.