Body checking in non‐clinical women: Experimental evidence of a specific impact on fear of uncontrollable weight gain

Body checking is used widely among clinical and non‐clinical individuals. It is suggested to be a safety behavior, reducing anxiety initially but potentially enhancing eating and shape concerns in the longer term. However, there is little causal evidence of those negative effects. This experimental...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The International journal of eating disorders 2017-06, Vol.50 (6), p.693-697
Main Authors: Bailey, Natalie, Waller, Glenn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
body checking
body image
Body Image - psychology
Body Weight - physiology
Cognitive therapy
Eating disorders
eating pathology
Emotions - physiology
Fear - psychology
fear of uncontrollable weight gain
Female
Humans
Psychopathology
Weight control
Weight Gain
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Summary:Body checking is used widely among clinical and non‐clinical individuals. It is suggested to be a safety behavior, reducing anxiety initially but potentially enhancing eating and shape concerns in the longer term. However, there is little causal evidence of those negative effects. This experimental study tests the potential negative impact of body checking. Fifty non‐clinical women took part in a study of the effects of body checking in naturalistic settings. Each checked their wrist size every 15 minutes for eight hours on one day, then did not check the next day (order randomized). The impact on eating cognitions and body dissatisfaction was measured at the end of each day, and levels of change in those characteristics were also associated with eating pathology levels. Body checking did not result in more negative general eating attitudes or body dissatisfaction, but did result in a significant increase in a specific cognition that is hypothesised to be relevant to eating pathology – the fear of uncontrollable weight gain following eating. This impact was greater among those women with more negative existing eating attitudes. These findings add to the small experimental evidence base, demonstrating negative causal links between body checking and eating pathology. The findings need to be extended to clinical groups, but support the use of existing cognitive‐behavioral methods to reduce body checking behavior.
ISSN:0276-3478
1098-108X
DOI:10.1002/eat.22676