Disinhibition: its effects on appetite and weight regulation

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, the understanding of eating behaviour has been dominated by the concept of dietary restraint. However, the development of the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), introduced two other factors; Disinhibition and Hunger, which have not received as much recognition in the literature. The objective of this review is to explore the relationship of the Disinhibition factor to weight regulation, food choice and eating disorders, and to consider its etiology. The review indicates that Disinhibition is an important eating behaviour trait. It is not only associated with a higher BMI and obesity, but also with mediating variables, such as less healthful food choices, which contribute to overweight/obesity and poorer health. Disinhibition is also implicated in eating disorders and contributes to eating disorder severity. It has been demonstrated that Disinhibition is predictive of poorer success at weight loss, and of weight regain during weight loss regimes and is associated with lower self-esteem, low physical activity and poor psychological health. Disinhibition therefore, emerges as an important and dynamic trait, with influences that go beyond eating behaviour and incorporate other behaviours which contribute to weight regulation and obesity. The characteristics of Disinhibition itself therefore reflect many components representative of a thrifty type of physiology. We propose that the trait of Disinhibition could be more appropriately renamed as 'Opportunistic Eating' or 'Thrifty Behaviour'.

Association of cognitive dietary restraint and disinhibition with prediabetes – cross-sectional and longitudinal data of a feasibility study in German employees

“…In a randomized weightloss programme Keränen et al reported that cognitive restraint was associated with lower energy and fat intakes, whereas carbohydrates and fibre intakes were higher (42) . In a review from Bryant et al disinhibition was reported to be associated with a less healthy food choice (15) . In contrast, the analysis of the Québec Family Study showed that dietary macronutrient content was not consistently related to eating behaviour traits in adolescents (22) .…”

“…In various populations previous studies suggest that eating behaviour traits correlate with body weight (13)(14)(15) . Most studies suggest that high levels of restraint eating but also of disinhibition are positively associated with a higher BMI and weight gain over time.…”

The Association Between Short Sleep Duration and Weight Gain Is Dependent on Disinhibited Eating Behavior in Adults

“…9 Examples of disinhibition include eating in response to negative affect, overeating when others are eating, not being able to resist eating, and overeating in response to the palatability of food. In particular, individuals characterized by a high disinhibition eating behavior score have a higher liking for sweet and high-fat foods.…”

Acute hunger modifies responses on the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire hunger and disinhibition, but not restraint, scales

“…As its name indicates, the questionnaire was devised to 29 measure three aspects of human eating, defined by the authors as restraint 30 (TFEQ-R), disinhibition (TFEQ-D) and hunger (TFEQ-H). Originally, these scales 31 were designed to measure long-term attitudes to eating and consequently scores 32 are often considered as long-term or trait measures (Barkeling, King, Näslund, & 33 Blundell, 2007;Bryant, King, & Blundell, 2008;Finlayson, Cecil, Higgs, Hill, & 34 Hetherington, 2012;Gallant, et al, 2013;Gallant, et al, 2010;Lattimore, Fisher, & 35 Malinowski, 2011). However, this implies that answers to items on the TFEQ 36 reflect long-term influences on each individual's eating and are thus insensitive 37 to the acute appetitive state of the participant.…”

“…The TFEQ-D scale has been described variously as a measure of trait 53 disinhibition (Lattimore, et al, 2011;Neale, Mazzeo, & Bulik, 2003), uncontrolled 54 eating (Keskitalo, et al, 2008;Yeomans, Leitch, & Mobini, 2008) or opportunistic 55 eating (Bryant, et al, 2008;Finlayson, et al, 2012), reflecting a recognition that 56 the name disinhibition is confounded with the disinhibition effect arising from 57 the breakdown of dietary restraint. Indeed, a shortened version of the TFEQ 58 combined items from the original TFEQ-D and TFEQ-H scales into measure of 59 uncontrolled and emotional eating (Karlsson, Persson, Sjostrom, & Sullivan, 60 2000).…”