Affective responses to overeating episodes in women participating in a behavioral weight loss program

abstinence violation effect weight loss

Dietary support may be tailored to inform bespoke coping strategies designed to manage the specific sensations that will likely pose the largest challenges for adherence. These few studies suggest that abstinence‐violation effects occur following lapses but are mostly absent from experiences of temptations. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ A negative reaction to lapsing can impact factors related to self‐attitudes, possibly through increased levels of guilt. These reactions may be detrimental to future dietary adherence, though some degree of self‐criticism following a lapse may be critical for preventing additional lapses on the same day.

Relapse Prevention

These data included study population characteristics, study design, measures, and interventions used, and results (Tables S2.1, S2.2, S2.3). Regarding study population, data were extracted on sample size, sample population and inclusion criteria, age, gender, race/ethnicity, and baseline weight assessment. Data were extracted on country of study, study design, study duration, study aims, intervention, measures used to assess BE/LOC, and weight change. Data extracted regarding study results included baseline weight variables (e.g. BMI, z-BMI, BMI percentile), baseline BE/LOC, follow-up (F/U) BE/LOC (when available), weight change (e.g. BMI change, z-BMI change, weight change), and overall study findings.

Restrained eating

  • Recognizing the factors that contributed to the lapse, such as stressors or triggers, helps individuals to develop strategies and techniques to navigate similar challenges in the future.
  • Cognitive restructuring can be used to tackle cognitive errors such as the abstinence violation effect.
  • In one of the first studies to examine this effect, Herman and Mack experimentally violated the diets of dieters by requiring them to drink a milkshake, a high-calorie food, as part of a supposed taste perception study [27].
  • Another study by Carels et al.21 found no evidence that hunger or fullness was different during temptations or lapses.

Coping is defined as the thoughts and behaviours used to manage the internal and external demands of situations that are appraised as stressful. A person who can execute effective coping strategies (e.g. a behavioural strategy, such as leaving the situation, or a cognitive strategy, such as positive self-talk) is less likely to relapse compared with a person lacking those skills. Moreover, people who have coped successfully with high-risk situations are assumed to experience a heightened sense of self-efficacy4.

abstinence violation effect weight loss

Associated Data

  • As of yet, current literature still lacks an in-depth understanding of key stakeholders’ personal perspectives on relapse after weight loss.
  • This suggests that individuals with nonabstinence goals are retained as well as, if not better than, those working toward abstinence, though additional research is needed to confirm these results and examine the effect of goal-matching on retention.
  • Marlatt coined the term abstinence violation effect to refer to situations in which addicts respond to an initial indulgence by consuming even more of the forbidden substance [11].
  • Delineating SBEs/OBEs on self-report measures may be confounded across time as participants learn what is considered an appropriate amount of food as they undergo treatment (35, 47).
  • The on-site concept mapping session for the health practitioners lasted 1.5 h and the session for the persons who regained weight lasted two hours.
  • Depression and other co-morbid mental illnesses are common in youth with BE/LOC and further research is needed to examine how this influences BE/LOC and weight loss (71, 72).

Future EMA studies would benefit from guidelines toward implementing design features for addressing experimental reactivity. A strength of this systematic review is that it is the first comprehensive account of the current evidence from EMA studies of the impact of dieting on experiences of temptations and lapses in free‐living individuals. These findings build on those from previous retrospective and lab‐based approaches by shedding light onto the dynamics of these processes. McKee et al.28 the abstinence violation effect refers to examined two strategies for coping with temptation (long‐term thinking of weight loss goal and importance of goal) and contrast outcomes between assessments that were made during temptations that did not lead to a lapse compared with temptations that led to a lapse. They found that use of these coping strategies were greater during temptations that did not lead to a lapse. An indirect relationship of using coping strategies on lapse occurrences via the temptation strength was also reported.

abstinence violation effect weight loss

Lapse-Activated Pattern and Abstinence Violations

Risk of Bias

abstinence violation effect weight loss

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