Lecture 3

Question 1

What does Mary Serdula of the American Centre for Disease Control & Prevention think about chronic concern with weight?

Answer 1

She thinks that it’s adaptive in todays society with so much food available in large portions. For many they need to constantly think about food and exercise in order to maintain a healthy weight

Question 2

What % of women are currently dieting? men?

Answer 2

women: 78%
men: 64%

Question 3

What is the only psychological problem that Martin Seligman considers less responsive to treatment than being overweight?

Answer 3

PTSD

Question 4

What problem did Hovell et al. discover in their study of very low calorie diet (VLCD) study?

Answer 4

That the 50% of participants who completed the study lost 84% of excess weight BUT the problem was with maintenance with 80% of weight regained by 18 months

only 3% considered a success after 5 years

Question 5

What is the Oprah Phenomenon?

What is the Oprah Paradox?

Answer 5

Boom and bust cycle of dieting

Someone with excellent self control can still have difficulty controlling their weight.

Question 6

What does Baumeister think of the self control of people who are overweight?

Answer 6

He believes that there is something unique about weight loss and it doesn’t reflect self control in other aspects of life

Question 7

Why does Seligman believe losing weight is so hard?

Answer 7

1. Weight is determined largely by genetics
2. Body has a natural “set point” from which you can only change about 10%
3. Our set point might be quite discrepant from the ideal

Question 8

What metabolic changes occur if your weight increases by 10%? decreases by 10%?

Answer 8

Increases by 25%

Decreases by 18%

Question 9

What is the False Hope Syndrome?

Answer 9

Ewoks Cheerfully Imagine Running Far Away

1. Expectations: are high/unrealistic
2. Commitment to change: makes us feel good
3. Initial Efforts: usually lose weight in the first few weeks
4. Resistance to change: after a few weeks it becomes harder and you begin to plateau
5. Failure/Abandonment: Regain weight and sometimes more
6. Attributions: usual attributions: “I didn’t try hard enough” and “I chose the wrong diet” Which are internal and unstable which leads to HOPE and the cycle starts over

Question 10

What is a healthy alternative to dieting for managing one’s weight?

Answer 10

Lifestyle change

Question 11

What explanations does Schacter give for the discrepancy between lab results and real life?

Answer 11

1. The types of people who sign up for studies tend to be the most difficult cases
2. People try to lose weight repeatedly so the small % of success aggregated over time (multiple attempts) is actually higher

Question 12

How did Directive Support affect weight loss goals?

Answer 12

Backfired and reduced success

Question 13

What were the results of Sachater’s 1982 study?

Answer 13

1/3 of 161 adults had been obese at some point in their lives
2/3’s of this subsample had successfully lost the weight and maintained the loss for more than 5 years

Question 14

Why might exercise be a better way to manage weight than diet alone?

Answer 14

1. Reduces biological aging
2. Reduces depression
3. reduces risk of other illnesses
4. might improve self control capacity
5. it can be FUN

Question 15

What is the What the Hell Effect?

Answer 15

Counterregulatory eating: When a dieter exceeds their daily calories and says what the hell, the day is ruined anyway i might as well enjoy myself