Appetite, 1999, 32, 295–305

Article No. appe.0205, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

Flexible vs. Rigid Dieting Strategies: Relationship with

Adverse Behavioral Outcomes

C. F. SMITH, D. A. WILLIAMSON, G. A. BRAY and D. H. RYAN

Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that different types of dieting
strategies are associated with different behavioral outcomes by investigating the
relationship of dieting behaviors with overeating, body mass and mood. A sample
of 223 adult male and female participants from a large community were studied.
Only a small proportion of the sample (18%) was seeking weight loss treatment,
though almost half (49·3%) of the subjects were significantly overweight (body
mass index, BMI>30). Subjects were administered questionnaires measuring
dietary restraint, overeating, depression and anxiety. Measurements of height and
weight were also obtained in order to calculate BMI. Canonical correlation was
performed to evaluate the relationship of dietary restraint variables with overeating
variables, body mass, depression and anxiety. The strongest canonical correlation
(r=0·65) was the relationship between flexible dieting and the absence of over-
eating, lower body mass and lower levels of depression and anxiety. The second
strongest canonical correlation (r=0·59) associated calorie counting and conscious
dieting with overeating while alone and increased body mass. The third canonical
correlation (r=0·57) found a relationship between low dietary restraint and binge
eating. The results support the hypothesis that overeating and other adverse
behaviors and moods are associated with the presence or absence of certain types
of dieting behavior.  1999 Academic Press

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Dietary restraint refers to the conscious effort to control weight through caloric
restriction (Herman & Mack, 1975). Some research findings have suggested a causal
relationship between increased dietary restraint and overeating (e.g. Herman &
Mack, 1975; Herman & Polivy, 1975; Hibscher & Herman, 1977). This line of
research has identified certain adverse events associated with dieting e.g. overeating/
binge eating (Polivy & Herman, 1985) and lowered metabolic rate (Tuschl et al.,
1990). These research findings have led some investigators to question the overall
benefit of dieting (Brownell, 1991; Brownell & Rodin, 1994; French & Jeffrey, 1994).
Other studies have found that dieting and overeating are often independent sets of
behaviors, suggesting that dieting may not necessarily be associated with overeating
(e.g. Westenhoefer, 1991; Westenhoefer 1990; Williamson et al., 1995). A recent
epidemiologic survey conducted by French et al. (1995) examined dieting practices

Address correspondence to: Donald A. Williamson, Department of Psychology, Louisiana State

University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, U.S.A.

0195–6663/99/030295+11 $30.00/0  1999 Academic Press

296 C. F. SMITH ET AL.

in a large sample of adolescent females and found that binge eating and weight
fluctuation were reported more frequently by participants who used unhealthy dieting
practices (i.e. fasting and vomiting) or attended structured weight loss programs
than by participants who engaged in healthy dieting behaviors such as decreasing
fat intake and engaging in moderate exercise.
Overeating is primarily motivated by hedonic and physiological factors such as
hunger. Eating in excess has also been found to be associated with negative affective
states (e.g. Polivy & Herman, 1985; Schotte et al., 1990). Research studies have
consistently found that binge eating is correlated with increased anxiety and de-
pression (e.g. Laessle et al., 1987; Marcus et al., 1988; Schwalberg et al., 1992;
Wadden et al., 1993). A recent study found a positive relationship between the
severity of binge eating and depression or anxiety (Telch & Agras, 1994). Also, Grilo
et al. (1994) found that 84% of binge eating episodes reported by normal weight
persons occurred during a negative affective state. Thus, the relationship between
binge eating and increased anxiety and depression appears to be well established.
Williamson et al. (1995) found that the combination of increased dietary restraint
and overeating was most highly associated with symptoms of anorexia and bulimia
nervosa. To place these diverse research findings in perspective, the argument can
be made that dieting may or may not be associated with adverse events such as
overeating and negative emotions. From this line of research, we ask the following
question: Are some but not all dieting strategies associated with overeating and
negative emotions?
Westenhoefer (1991) was the first to address this question. He found that
individuals who reported that they engaged in regimented eating behaviors (e.g. an
all-or-nothing approach to dieting) were more likely to report overeating than
individuals who endorsed a flexible type of dietary restraint such as taking small
helpings and being deliberate in making food choices. In this study, items of the
Dietary Restraint scale of the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) were used
to predict high and low scores on the TFEQ’s Disinhibition scale, a measure of
overeating. Westenhoefer found two sets of dieting behaviors, which he called Flexible
Control (FC) and Rigid Control (RC). The FC scale was composed of items
describing being conscious of food intake and eating less after breaking a diet. The
RC scale included items describing calorie counting and strict dieting. A study by
Shearin et al. (1994) found that the FC scale was negatively correlated with body
mass index (BMI) and predicted the symptoms of anorexia nervosa, and that the
RC scale was correlated with the symptoms of bulimia nervosa and weight instability.
In a recent study, Williamson et al. (1995) found that both the FC and RC scales
moderated the relationship between BMI and overeating. The results of these
recent investigations have questioned the relationship between dieting strategies
and overeating, body mass and psychiatric syndromes such as eating disorders.
Nevertheless, the relative costs vs. benefits associated with dieting continue to be a
significant health controversy (Brownell & Rodin, 1994).
This study was designed to test the hypothesis that different dieting strategies
are associated with different behavioral outcomes, specifically, overeating and negative
emotions. Items from the Dietary Restraint and Disinhibition scales of the TFEQ
were correlated to evaluate the different relationships among dieting behaviors and
overeating. Body mass, depression and generalized anxiety were included as variables
to evaluate the association of dieting with these variables.
 FLEXIBLE VS. RIGID DIETING 297

M

Subjects
Research participants (N=223) included female and male adults seeking par-
ticipation in studies aimed at investigating the relationship between health problems
and nutrition at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. A small portion of
the subjects (18%) were seeking participation in a weight loss study. Other participants
included in the sample were recruited for a study designed to reduce hypertension
through nutrition (30%), an investigation of dairy products (25%), a study evaluating
the effects of varying dietary fat on blood cholesterol levels (17%), and a nutrition
study using individuals with a family history of diabetes (10%). The sample contained
slightly more females (51·5%) than males (48·5%). The mean age of the research
participants was 38·8 years (SD=9·7). Racial composition was 50% Caucasian, 44%
African American and 6% other racial groups.

Assessment Measures

Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ)

The TFEQ was developed by Stunkard and Messick (1985). Factor analysis
performed on this 51 item questionnaire revealed three factors: Dietary Restraint,
Disinhibition and Perceived Hunger. The Dietary Restraint scale has been found to
measure dieting behavior and restrained eating (Allison et al., 1992; Laessle et al.,
1989). Investigations of the Disinhibition scale have found that it evaluates the
breaking of dietary restraint as well as self-reported overeating independent of dietary
restraint (Heatheron et al., 1988; Rosen et al., 1990; Williamson et al., 1995). The
Perceived Hunger scale measures self-reported hunger. Test-retest reliability was
found to be satisfactory for all three scales (Stunkard & Messick, 1985). The entire
TFEQ was administered, but only the Dietary Restraint and Disinhibition scales
were used for the purpose of statistical analysis.

Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)

Depressive symptoms were measured using the BDI, a self-report questionnaire
containing 21 items (Beck et al., 1961). Research has established the reliability and
validity of the BDI (Beck et al., 1988).

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)

Situational and generalized anxiety were measured using the STAI. The reliability
and validity of the STAI has been established (Spielberger et al., 1970). Research
participants completed the entire STAI, but only the Trait scale (generalized anxiety)
was used for the purpose of statistical analysis.

Body weight and height

Measurements of height (m) and weight (kg) were obtained and BMI was
calculated with the formula: body weight (kg)/height (m2). Body mass index has
been validated as an index of adiposity (Garrow, 1983).
298 C. F. SMITH ET AL.

Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID)

Individual research participants were interviewed using a structured interview
designed to assess psychopathology. The main purpose of using the SCID in the
current study was to diagnose the presence of an eating disorder. Participants meeting
diagnostic criteria for anorexia or bulimia nervosa (American Psychiatric Association,
1994) were excluded from the sample.

Procedure
Research participants were surveyed individually across two sessions at the
Pennington Biomedical Research Center as part of a standard screening procedure
for acceptance into other studies. During the first session, the participants’ height
and weight were obtained. They were also administered the TFEQ, BDI and STAI.
Participants were interviewed using the SCID during the second session.

Statistical Procedure
The current study utilized canonical correlation which is a multivariate statistical
technique that analyses the relationships between two sets of variables in a manner
similar to multiple regression (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989). Through combining two
sets of variables, a predicted value of one set that has the highest correlation with
a predicted value of the other set is formed. This combination creates a dimension
that relates the two sets of variables which is referred to as a pair of canonical
variates. Unlike multiple regression, more than one combination of the variables
can occur. Both convergent and discriminant validity can be found using canonical
correlation. Convergent validity is evident in high canonical coefficients whereas
discriminant validity is found when a particular variable correlates highly with one
canonical variate and not with the other canonical variates. A variable may correlate
strongly with more than one canonical variate.

R

The mean BMI of the sample was 29·6 (SD=4·93) with a range of 19·0–48·9 kg/
m2. Almost half (49·3%) of the subjects were significantly overweight (BMI greater
than 30 kg/m2). Mean scores and standard deviations for the three scales of the
TFEQ were: Dietary Restraint (M=9·1; SD=4·5), Disinhibition (M=5·5; SD=
3·7), and Perceived Hunger (M=3·9; SD=2·8). None of the research participants
were diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia nervosa. The mean score on the Beck
Depression Inventory (BDI) was 4·2 (SD=5·2). The mean score on the Trait scale
on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T) was 46·5 (SD=9·7). Both mean
scores were within the range of non-psychiatric samples.
Canonical correlation (SPSSx; Hull & Nie, 1981) was performed between a set
of dieting strategy variables and a set of behavioral outcome variables. The set of
variables representing dieting strategies was composed of the 21 items of the TFEQ’s
Dietary Restraint scale. The variables in the behavioral outcome set contained the
16 items of the TFEQ’s Disinhibition scale, BMI, and total scores of measures
assessing generalized anxiety (STAI-T) and depression (BDI).
 FLEXIBLE VS. RIGID DIETING 299

The first canonical correlation was 0·65; the second canonical correlation was
0·59; and the third canonical correlation was 0·57. The remaining 16 canonical
correlations were <0·52, with the last seven being effectively zero. After removing
the first three canonical correlations, the remaining correlations were not statistically
significant. The first three pairs of canonical variates, therefore, accounted for the
significant relationships between the two sets of variables. Taken collectively, these
three canonical correlations accounted for 50·2% of the total variance.
For the purpose of interpretation of the canonical correlations, a correlation
greater than 0·25 between variables (i.e. items of the TFEQ, BMI or test scores) and
canonical variates was considered to be meaningful, regardless of sign. Shown in
Table 1 are correlations between the variables (TFEQ’s Dietary Restraint and
Disinhibition items, BMI, BDI score and STAI-T score) and the canonical variate
pairs. Five of the 21 dieting behaviors met the inclusion criterion for the first
canonical variate pair. The dieting strategies that correlated with the first pair
described: (1) successful caloric restriction; (2) non-compensation for overeating; (3)
consciously eating less; and (4) self-reported intent to diet. These dieting behaviors
were negatively correlated with 15 of the 19 variables in the behavioral outcome set
which when interpreted described: (1) not overeating during negative affective states;
(2) not overeating while with others who are overeating; (3) absence of eating when
not hungry; (4) lower body mass, and relatively low emotional distress. Taken as a
pair, these variates suggested eating a set amount of calories, not breaking one’s
diet, and consciously eating less were associated with decreased body mass, not
overeating when depressed and/or anxious, and not overeating in social situations.
The 13 dietary strategies that met the inclusion criterion for the second canonical
variate pair, also presented in Table 1, included behaviors such as: (1) stopping
eating before full; (2) taking small portions; (3) counting calories; (4) deliberate
dieting; and (5) avoiding certain foods. These dieting behaviors were associated with
six behavioral outcomes: (1) overeating while alone; (2) weight cycling; (3) eating
slowly; (4) increased BMI; and (5) not overeating when satiated or with someone
else who is overeating. Thus, the second pair of canonical variates indicated that
limiting food intake, counting calories and dieting were related to “splurging” while
alone, weight instability, frequent dieting and increased BMI.
The third canonical variate pair contained five dieting strategies and six behavioral
outcomes (Table 1). Failure to limit calories, low interest in dieting, and a desire to
eat in an unrestricted manner were reflected in the set of variables describing dieting
strategies. The behavioral outcomes associated with these dieting behaviors included:
(1) eating rapidly; (2) binge eating; (3) breaking dietary restraint almost daily; (4)
overeating in social situations; and (5) overeating when depressed. Taken togther,
the third canonical pair suggested a relationship between failure to limit caloric
intake with rapid eating, binge eating and repeated failures at dieting.1

1
Canonical correlational analysis of the relationship between dieting strategies and behavioral
outcomes was calculated for Caucasian and African-American subjects in our sample. Very similar
patterns of correlations were found for the two subgroups. Also, a comparison of the two racial groups
on scales of flexible and rigid dieting found that African-Americans reported slightly more intense dieting
of both types in comparison to Caucasian subjects. This small difference was statistically significant,
however. Conclusions derived from these secondary analyses should be tempered by the relative small
sample size of these two subgroups and by the possibility that our sample was not representative of the
two racial groups in the general population.
300 C. F. SMITH ET AL.

T 1
Correlations of variables and the canonical variate pairs
Variable Canonical variate

First pair Second pair Third pair

R1 When I have eaten my quota of calories, I

am usually good about not eating anymore. 0·61∗ 0·19 −0·40∗
R2 I deliberately take small helpings as a means
of controlling my weight. 0·09 0·53∗ −0·21
R3 Life is too short to worry about dieting.
(false) 0·01 0·28 −0·37∗
R4 I have a pretty good idea of the number of
calories in common food. −0·13 0·45∗ −0·01
R5 While on a diet, if I eat food that is not
allowed, I consciously eat less for a period of
time to make up for it. −0·46∗ 0·11 −0·16
R6 I enjoy eating too much to spoil it by
counting calories or watching my weight.
(false) 0·21 0·44∗ −0·23
R7 I often stop eating when I am not really full
as a conscious means of limiting the amount
that I eat. 0·17 0·56∗ 0·18
R8 I consciously hold back at meals in order not
to gain weight. 0·28∗ 0·35∗ −0·26
R9 I eat anything I want, any time I want. (false) 0·07 0·29 −0·33∗
R10 I count calories as a conscious means of
controlling my weight. −0·06 0·52∗ −0·06
R11 I do not eat some foods because they make
me fat. 0·05 0·38∗ −0·11
R12 I pay a great deal of attention to changes in
my figure. −0·02 0·03 0·01
R13 I am usually or always dieting in a conscious
effort to control my weight. −0·10 0·39∗ 0·05
R14 A weight fluctuation of 5 lbs would
moderately or very much affect my life. −0·21 0·03 0·01
R15 My feelings of guilt about overeating usually
or always helps me control my food intake. 0·10 0·18 −0·19
R16 I am moderately or extremely conscious of
what I am eating. 0·12 −0·09 0·00
R17 I usually or almost always avoid “stocking
up” on tempting foods. 0·17 0·10 −0·21
R18 I am moderately or very likely to shop for
low calorie foods. 0·04 0·12 −0·16
R19 I am moderately or very likely to eat slowly
in order to cut down on how much I eat. −0·23 0·30∗ −0·22
R20 I am moderately or very likely to consciously
eat less than I want. 0·26∗ 0·38∗ −0·14
R21 On a scale of 0·5, where 0 means no restraint
and 5 means total restraint, I rate myself 3, 4
or 5. 0·26∗ 0·32∗ 0·37∗
D1 When I smell a sizzling steak or see a juicy
piece of meat, I find it very difficult to keep
from eating, even if I have just finished a
meal. −0·29∗ −0·07 0·25
D2 I usually eat too much at social occasions,
like parties and picnics. −0·41∗ 0·08 0·39∗

continued
 FLEXIBLE VS. RIGID DIETING 301

T 1
Correlations of variables and the canonical variate pairs—continued
Variable Canonical variate

First pair Second pair Third pair

D3 Sometimes things just taste so good that I

keep on eating even when I am no longer
hungry. −0·50∗ −0·29 0·09
D4 When I feel anxious, I find myself eating. −0·59∗ 0·20 −0·04
D5 Since my weight goes up and down, I have
been on reducing diets more than once. −0·48∗ 0·42∗ 0·02
D6 When I am with someone who is overeating,
I usually overeat too. −0·56∗ −0·30∗ 0·06
D7 Sometimes when I start eating, I just can’t
seem to stop. −0·28∗ 0·00 0·02
D8 It is not difficult for me to leave something
on my plate. (false) 0·13 −0·23 −0·03
D9 When I feel blue, I overeat. −0·57∗ 0·11 0·34∗
D10 My weight has hardly changed at all in the
last 10 years. (false) −0·24 0·06 0·01
D11 When I feel lonely, I console myself by
eating. −0·52∗ −0·09 0·13
D12 Without even thinking about it, I take a long
time to eat. (false) 0·25 −0·36∗ 0·51∗
D13 While on a diet, if I eat food that is not
allowed, I often splurge and eat other high
calorie foods. −0·36∗ −0·02 0·30∗
D14 I often or always eat sensibly in front of
others and splurge alone. 0·00 0·48∗ 0·25
D15 I sometimes or at least once a week go on
eating binges even though I am not hungry −0·33∗ 0·19 0·45∗
D16 “I start dieting in the morning, but because
of any number of things that happen during
the day, by evening I have given up and eat
what I want, promising myself to start dieting
again tomorrow.” This is a pretty good or
perfect description of me. −0·42∗ 0·20 0·43∗
BMI Body mass index −0·29∗ 0·31∗ 0·16
BDI Beck Depression Inventory score −0·49∗ −0·01 −0·05
STAI State-Trait Anxiety Inventory/Trait anxiety
score −0·47∗ −0·15 0·18

Abbreviations: TFEQ=Three Factor Eating Questionnaire, R1–21=Dietary restraint scale items,

D1–16=Disinhibition scale items. An asterisk indicates the item is above the cutoff for the canonical
variate pair.

D

The results of this study supported the hypothesis that some dieting behaviors
are associated with adverse behavioral events such as overeating and negative affect
while other dieting strategies are not. Specifically, this study found that certain
dieting strategies were associated with lowered body mass and successful dietary
restraint. The dieting strategies associated with these relatively benign behavioral
302 C. F. SMITH ET AL.

outcomes were: (1) setting a quota for daily caloric intake and sticking to it; (2) not
restricting caloric intake if the quota was exceeded; and (3) intention to limit food
intake. These dieting behaviors were associated with avoidance of overeating when
with others or when lonely, when anxious or when depressed.
The second canonical correlation found a relationship between calorie counting
and overeating, particularly when alone. This correlation suggests that individuals
who believe themselves to be on strict diets, by actively counting calories (or fat
grams) and by avoiding certain foods, tended to overeat and splurge while alone.
Furthermore, these strict dieting practices were associated with unsuccessful weight
control (increased body mass). This relationship appeared to describe the commonly
held belief that dieting leads to overeating and thus is associated with increased
adiposity (Polivy & Herman, 1985). Alternatively, this relationship could indicate
that overweight individuals who frequently overeat engage in rigid dieting practices
after gaining weight or in order to compensate for overeating. Another explanation
for this finding is that individuals with significant binge eating problems may adopt
more rigid dieting strategies in order to cope with binge eating and weight gain.
Further research is needed to explore these explanations for this relationship between
rigid dieting, overeating and increased body weight.
A relationship between low dietary restraint and overeating was found in the
third canonical correlation. The relative absence of dietary restraint was associated
with rapid eating, eating when not hungry, overeating during social events and
negative affective states. This correlation appears to describe a pattern of unrestrained
overeating, which may be one consequence of the frustration of repeated unsuccessful
dieting (Lowe, 1993). This relationship has been reported in several recent studies
of persons diagnosed with binge eating disorder (Marcus et al., 1992) and with severe
obesity (Lawson et al., 1995; Williamson et al., 1995) and could indicate that some
individuals may give up the struggle to control binge eating and avoid weight gain
altogether.
The Dietary Restraint items identified as significant predictors of overeating in
this study were somewhat different from the Flexible Control (FC) and Rigid Control
(RC) scales identified by Westenhoefer (1991). Four of the seven FC subscale items
identified by Westenhoefer were moderately correlated to the first canonical variate
pair (0·26 to 0·61) which represented successful dieting. However, three of these four
FC items were also correlated with the other two canonical variate pairs which were
associated with overeating. Only three of the seven items of the RC scale were
correlated with the second canonical variate (which described a relationship between
calorie counting and overeating while alone). These findings provide only minimal
support for the exact items identified by Westenhoefer (1991) as the FC and RC
scales. However, at a conceptual level, the first canonical correlation of our study
appeared to reflect a relationship between “flexible” dieting strategies and the
relative absence of overeating. Similarly, the second canonical correlation described
a relationship between “rigid” dieting strategies and overeating and increased body
mass. It should not be too surprising that the results of these two investigations did
not yield identical results given that the TFEQ was not designed to assess different
dieting strategies. We recommend that future research on this topic should be more
attentive to the content validity of scales designed to measure flexible and rigid
dieting strategies. The findings of this study and those of Westenhoefer (1991) should
be used as a starting point for identifying the two types of dieting strategies. Also,
we suggest that most persons do not utilize purely flexible or purely rigid strategies
 FLEXIBLE VS. RIGID DIETING 303

for dieting and therefore, we should expect measures of these different dieting
strategies to be positively correlated.
A limitation of this study is that the findings were primarily based upon self-
report data. Laboratory studies of dieting and overeating are needed to further
investigate and elucidate this relationship. Another limitation is that two factorially
derived measures, the TFEQ’s Restraint and Disinhibition scales, were used which
may have had an impact on the findings. Since these scales were intended to assess
constructs such as dietary restraint with homogeneous items, it is not surprising that
some of the canonical variates contained few item loadings. Future studies in this
line of research would benefit from using measures that evaluate a more heterogeneous
sample of dieting strategies. A third limitation of the study was that it included a
higher proportion (49%) of obese subjects than is found in the normal population.
The finding of similar canonical correlations across Caucasian and African-American
subjects must be interpreted very cautiously due to the limited sample size of these
two racial groups. Also, the finding of more intensive dieting in the African-American
sample is inconsistent with the findings of earlier studies (Klesges, DeBon & Meyers,
1996) and we believe that further study on this question is warranted before arriving
at strong conclusions concerning dieting habits of different ethnic groups.
Despite these limitations, the results of this study raise a number of significant
questions about current thinking regarding the adverse behavioral events associated
with dieting. This is the second study (including Westenhoefer, 1991) which has
found a relationship between flexible (or perhaps non-rigid) dieting practices and
the relative absence of overeating. While the two studies did not replicate the exact
dieting behaviors considered to be flexible, the results of both studies suggest that
there may be dieting practices that are not associated with adverse behavioral
outcomes. This possibility deserves more extensive research since obesity is well
established as a negative health risk factor and dieting has received considerable
criticism as a means for controlling obesity (Brownell & Rodin, 1994). What is
needed is more research [similar to French et al. (1995)] designed to identify dieting
behaviors which are associated with positive health outcomes and those which are
not. It is our opinion that this type of investigation should be one of two lines of
research following these preliminary results.
The second line of research should investigate motivational factors for habitual
overeating/binge beyond purely hedonic qualities, e.g. specific macronutrient appetites
or “defects” of hunger and/or satiety (Geiselman, 1995). It is a common finding that
there is a pattern of behavior where individuals overeat whether they are attempting
to diet or not, as indicated by the second and third canonical correlations of this
study and by previous research (Lawson et al., 1995; Lowe, 1993; Williamson et al.,
1995). These findings suggest that the presence of motivational factors for overeating
often lead to unsuccessful behavioral compensation in the form of dieting. From
these two lines of research, perhaps we can begin to understand why only overweight
persons make the effort to diet and why only a small proportion of those who diet,
succeed in their efforts to control excess body weight.

R

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Received 6 December 1995, revision 7 July 1996, accepted in revised form 25 November 1997