The Success and Failure of Dieting Essay Plan

AO1

• Ancestral Behaviour:  ability to diet had an adaptive value in times of food scarcity.
• Means of attaining successful dieting are desirable, with obesity currently so widespread
• It is not beneficial however as it is a main consequence of body dissatisfaction and leads to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa. 
• Wing and Hill:  define success as 'successful long-term weight loss maintenance, involving the intentional loss of at least 10 per cent of initial body weight and keeping it off for at least one year.' According to this definition, only 20 per cent succeeed. Dieters differ in the extent to which eating is restrained and for how long and these factors also affect success levels. The majority of dieters are women, of whom 87% have dieted at some point. 
• Restraint Theory: Emerged in the 1970's as a means of researching dieting, incorporating self-report scales to measure individual's dieting behaviour. The theory sees dieters as placing a cognitive boundary on food intake and then indulging in reduced eating. However, rather…