Curr Psychol DOI 10.1007/s12144-017-9577-9 Emotional Eating and Weight in Adults: a Review Mallory Frayn1 & Bärbel Knäuper1 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017 Abstract Emotional eating is the tendency to overeat in re- Introduction sponse to negative emotions and has shown to be associated with weight outcomes, both in respect to weight gain over time Emotional eating is defined as the Btendency to overeat in and difficulties with weight loss and weight loss maintenance. It response to negative emotions, such as anxiety or irritability^ is thus important to develop treatments to improve weight loss (van Strien et al. 2007, p. 106). It is a highly prevalent concern outcomes in emotional eaters. The purpose of this review is to for those who struggle with their weight; it is suggested that explore adults’ relationship between emotional eating and 60% or more of individuals who are overweight or obese are weight by: (1) describing self-report measures used to assess also emotional eaters (Ganley 1989). Emotional eaters are emotional eating such as the Dutch Eating Behavior particularly likely to consume foods high in fat, sugar, and Questionnaire (DEBQ), the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire calories in response to negative emotions (Elfhag and (TFEQ), and the Emotional Eating Scale (EES), (2) exploring Rossner 2005). These eating habits in combination with in- the relationship between emotional eating and weight outcomes, creased body weight place emotional eaters at higher risk for namely examining weight gain in longitudinal studies and diffi- developing diabetes and heart disease (e.g., Melanson 2007; culties with weight loss and weight loss maintenance in inter- Wang et al. 2010). This population also struggles with weight vention studies, and (3) reviewing current interventions that tar- loss; emotional eaters are half as likely as non-emotional get emotional eating, using techniques such as mindfulness, eaters to achieve the 10% weight loss goal of standard behav- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive ioral weight loss treatment (López-Guimerà et al. 2014). Behavior Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy Emotional eating is important to study because of its negative (DBT). A better understanding of adults’ emotional eating and effects on weight and overall health. Thus far very few inter- its impact on weight is important to develop interventions that ventions have incorporated the treatment of emotional eating effectively target weight loss struggles unique to emotional into weight loss interventions. eaters and improve weight outcomes for this population. The purpose of this paper is to review the relationship be- tween emotional eating and body weight in adults and to ex- plore the current treatment options used to address these con- Keywords Emotional eating . Weight . Weight loss . Review cerns. To our knowledge, no such review exists. Other reviews have outlined theoretical perspectives on emotional eating (e.g., Canetti et al. 2002), have examined the prevalence of * Mallory Frayn emotional eating in a variety of samples (e.g., Gibson 2012), [email protected] and have reviewed studies using a certain treatment approach, namely mindfulness interventions, for emotional eating (e.g., Bärbel Knäuper Katterman et al. 2014;O’Reilly et al. 2014). However, none of [email protected] these reviews have attempted to explicate the relationship be- tween emotional eating and weight, nor have they thoroughly 1 Department of Psychology, McGill University, Stewart Biology Building, 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1, evaluated treatment options for overweight or obese emotion- Canada al eaters. This review seeks to fill these gaps in the existing Curr Psychol literature to help establish better treatment protocols for emo- are also not included in this review because they examine tional eating. emotional eating at a single time point, making it difficult to Currently, research in this area is still burgeoning and there determine the long term relationship between emotional eat- is significant heterogeneity in the measures and methodolo- ing, food consumption, and weight. This review will instead gies used to study the effects of emotional eating on weight focus on studies in natural settings to examine the relationship and treatment efficacy. For these reasons, we did not conduct a between emotional eating and weight in overweight and obese systematic review or meta-analysis; this review is instead a individuals, namely examining weight gain and difficulties comprehensive narrative that describes the key findings that with weight loss over time. together help to elucidate the relationship between emotional Conceptualizations for eating in response to positive emo- eating and weight in adults in order to obtain possible solu- tions will not be reviewed because there is evidence that it is a tions for effective treatments of emotional eating. different construct than eating in response to negative emo- Studies included in this review are those that have ex- tions. For example, eating in response to positive emotions amined the relationship between emotional eating and has shown to be negatively correlated with eating in response weight in a variety of contexts, including longitudinal to negative emotions (e.g., Nolan et al. 2010; van Strien et al. studies in naturalistic settings (examining normal weight, 2016). There is also currently no conclusive evidence that overweight, and obese individuals) and behavioral weight eating in response to positive emotions is associated with be- loss interventions (examining overweight and obese indi- ing overweight or obese (e.g., van Strien et al. 2016;van viduals). In reviewing the literature we searched the Strien et al. 2013), whereas eating in response to negative PsycINFO database using the key words Bemotional emotions is negatively associated with weight outcomes eating^, Bemotional eaters^, Bweight^, Bweight gain^, (e.g., Delahanty et al. 2013; Koenders and van Strien 2011; Bweight loss^, Bweight loss intervention^, Bweight Teixeira et al. 2010). Additionally, it has been observed that maintenance^, BBMI^,andBlongitudinal.^ We also thor- eating in response to positive emotions is associated with par- oughly examined the references cited in the studies found taking in social situations (Patel and Schlundt 2001). Because through the database to ensure we completed an exhaus- food is often consumed socially in positive emotional contexts tive search of the literature. We included studies that: (1) such as celebrations, it is difficult to determine whether emo- used a self-report measure to quantitatively assess emo- tional eating truly occurs in response to internal positive emo- tional eating, (2) included weight as a primary outcome tions or if increased consumption is more attributable to the variable, and (3) examined emotional eating in overweight external social context. This review therefore focuses on eat- and/or obese individuals. Studies were excluded from this ing in response to negative emotions and the impact it has on review if they did not adhere to all three criteria listed weight outcomes. above. Thus the studies described in this review highlight This review is structured along three aims. First, we will this relationship between emotional eating and weight. describe the various ways in which emotional eating is Gaining a better understanding of emotional eating has assessed in research concerned with weight outcomes. implications for the treatment of overweight and obesity, Second, we will review the literature to see how emotional as it will allow for the refinement of behavioral weight eating is related to weight and to weight loss success in inter- loss programs to target emotional eating. vention contexts. Using this information, the third aim is to Studies in laboratory settings have explored the relation- explore and discuss ideal methods for targeting and treating ship between emotions and eating behavior by inducing neg- emotional eating in weight loss interventions. ative moods and measuring subsequent food consumption (e.g., van Strien et al. 2013; Werthmann et al. 2014). These studies have been done in normal weight university student populations (e.g., van Strien et al. 2013; Wallis and Aim 1: Self-Report Measures of Emotional Eating Hetherington 2009; Werthmann et al. 2014). Of the mood induction laboratory studies that have been conducted with Several self-report measures exist to assess emotional eating overweight and obese individuals, they have focused on binge and the related construct of internal disinhibition, as intro- eating, rather than emotional eating (e.g., Chua et al. 2004; duced below. The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire Laessle and Schulz 2009). A recent meta-analysis found that (DEBQ;vanStrienetal.1986), the Three Factor Eating the induction of a negative food state increases food consump- Questionnaire (TFEQ; Stunkard and Messick 1985), and the tion in binge eaters (Cardi et al. 2015). However, the results of Emotional Eating Scale (EES) are the three most frequently these studies on binge eating are not directly applicable to used, based on a cited reference search conducted using the emotional eating in the context of behavioral weight loss in- Scopus database. The measures have been cited 1248, 2418, terventions targeted towards overweight and obese popula- and 287 times, respectively. Other measures of emotional eat- tions such as those we will be reviewing.