Weight, restraint, cognitions and counterregulation

An experiment was designed to examine restraint theory's assumptions that restraint is a more fundamental variable than weight, that counterregulatory behavior typifies the obese, and that cognitive factors play a role in counterregulation. The findings of this experiment were examined along with reanalyses of data from two additional studies of restraint (Hibscher and Herman, 1977; Spencer and Fremouw, 1979). The data indicated that restraint is a powerful predictor of consummatory patterns. However, there was no support for restraint theory's assumptions that counterregulatory behavior is prevalent among obese and that the confound between weight and restraint can completely account for obese-normal differences in behavior. The theory's assumption that cognitive factors influence counterregulatory (and regulatory) behavior was consistent with the findings.