Dieting, Overweight and Obesity: Self-Regulation in a Food-Rich Environment

341 Pages·2022·10.709 MB·English

by  Wolfgang Stroebe

“Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the causes of our continuing
obesity epidemic and what we can do about it. Stroebe’s critical and comprehen-
sive analysis expertly weaves together the latest research and psychological theories
to explain why sticking to a healthy diet is so hard and why, when it comes to
obesity, prevention is better than cure.”
Natalia Lawrence, Associate Professor in Psychology, University of Exeter, UK

DIETING, OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY
Whydosomanypeoplebecomeoverweightandobeseandwhydotheyfinditso
difficult to lose weight? In this second edition of his influential book on Dieting,
Overweight and Obesity, Wolfgang Stroebe – who developed the goal conflict
model of eating – explores the physiological, environmental and psychological
influenceonweightgainandexamineshowtheseprocessesareaffectedbygenetic
factors.
Like the first edition, the book takes a social-cognitive approach to weight
regulation and discusses how exposure to environmental cues can set-off over-
eating in chronic dieters. In addition to extensively revising and updating the
chapters of the first edition, this second edition features three new chapters. The
chapter on successful restrained eating reviews personality factors as well as recent
experimental research on impulse control. The chapters on psychological treat-
ment of obesity and on primary prevention describe and evaluate the various
treatment and prevention approaches and the research conducted to assess their
efficacy.
Thisbookisessentialreadingforstudents,researchersandcliniciansinterestedin
anup-to-datereviewofthefieldofeatingresearchandanewtheoreticalapproach
to the study of overweight and obesity.
Wolfgang Stroebe is Professor Emeritus of Utrecht University and now Visiting
Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
He is a former president of the European Association of Social Psychology, a
Fellow of many psychological societies and the recipient of lifetime awards from
the European Association of Social Psychology and the German Psychological
Society. He has authored and co-authored numerous books and research articles
on topics of social and health psychology.

DIETING, OVERWEIGHT
AND OBESITY
Self-Regulation in a
Food-Rich Environment
Second edition
Wolfgang Stroebe
Coverimage:©GettyImages
Secondeditionpublished2023
byRoutledge
4ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
andbyRoutledge
605ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10158
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2023WolfgangStroebe
TherightofWolfgangStroebetobeidentifiedasauthor[/s]ofthisworkhas
beenassertedinaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,Designs
andPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany
informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe
publishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered
trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintent
toinfringe.
FirsteditionpublishedbyRoutledge2018
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Acatalogrecordhasbeenrequestedforthisbook
ISBN:9781138596535(hbk)
ISBN:9781138613676(pbk)
ISBN:9780429464386(ebk)
DOI:10.4324/9780429464386
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
In memory of my parents Hilde and Ernst Stroebe

CONTENTS
List of illustrations x
Acknowledgement xii
Preface to the first edition xiii
Preface to the second edition xvi
1 Dieting, overweight and obesity: An introduction 1
2 Prevalence and consequences of overweight and obesity 8
3 Energy balance and the genetics of body weight 33
4 Environmental causes of the increase in overweight and obesity 56
5 Classic theories of weight regulation in obesity 90
6 Restrained eating and the breakdown of self-regulation 108
7 Beyond the boundary model: A cognitive process theory of
restrained eating 129
8 Successful restrained eaters and strategies to improve
dieting success 161
9 Treatment of overweight and obesity 185
10 Prevention of overweight and obesity 220
References 242
Author Index 304
Subject Index 313