title: Effects of a weight maintenance diet on bulimic symptoms in adolescent girls: an experimental test of the dietary restraint theory.
abstract: It is widely accepted that dieting increases the risk for bulimia nervosa, but there have been few experimental tests of this theory. The authors conducted a randomized experiment with adolescent girls (N=188) to examine the effects of a weight maintenance diet on bulimic symptoms. A manipulation check verified that the diet intervention resulted in weight maintenance and significantly reduced the risk for obesity onset and weight gain observed in assessment-only controls. As hypothesized, the diet intervention resulted in significantly greater decreases in bulimic symptoms and negative affect than observed in controls. These experimental findings, which converge with those from a weight loss diet experiment, appear antithetical to dietary restraint theory and suggest instead that dietary restriction curbs bulimic symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. estice@ori.org
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stice
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Presnell
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Groesz
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shaw
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001835:Body Weight; D002032:Bulimia / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004035:Diet Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013781:Texas