The Psychology of Eating: From Healthy to Disordered Behavior

Obesity 177

• There is some evidence that the obese sometimes but not consistently
  consume more calories than the nonobese.


• The relative increase in fat is parallel to the increase in obesity.


• The obese may eat proportionally more fat than the nonobese.


• Dieting may have a causal role in the development of obesity by trig-
  gering overeating and subsequent weight gain in those who feel fat but
  are not always fat.

Therefore, it would seem that:

• Some individuals have a genetic tendency to be obese.


• Obesity is related to underexercise.


• Obesity is related to consuming relatively more fat and relatively less
  carbohydrate.


• Dieting may contribute to this relative overconsumption.

Problems With Obesity Research

There are several problems with the literature on obesity which can be con-
sidered in terms of the following stages of research.

The problem being studied

Obesity has been described as having a dynamic phase (becoming obese)
and a static phase (maintaining a level of obesity) (Garrow, 1974). Research
indicates that it may take fewer calories to maintain a level of obesity than
it does to become obese in the first place. Therefore, obese individuals may
overeat (compared to the nonobese) in the dynamic phase and undereat
(compared to the nonobese) in the static phase.

Data collection

Measuring food intake is extremely problematic – laboratory studies,
diary studies, and observation studies may actually change what people eat.
Observational studies do not involve people in controlled conditions, and
self-report studies are open to forgetting and social desirability. Under-
reporting of food intake is found in most populations but particularly in
the obese, who omit snack foods and foods high in fat from food checklists