The term ‘Dietary Restraint;’ which can be defined as the “intentional efforts to achieve or maintain a desired weight through reduced caloric intake,” (Larsen, Van Strien, Eisinga, Herman & Engels, 2007, p.100) has been the predominant model in explaining humans eating behaviour over the past thirty years. However there is a growing body of literature that has now begun to question the notion of dietary restraint and its success in explaining weight control especially in non-obese humans (Sysko, Walsh & Wilson, 2006; Westenhoefer, Broekman, Münch & Pudel, 1994). It has also been criticized in terms of its methods of measuring restraint (Williamson, Martin, York-Crowe, Anton, Redman, Hann et al. 2007; Bond, McDowell & Wilkinson, 2001) whilst some support for the earlier model of human eating behaviour; externality theory, has now begun (Lowe, 1993). These criticisms and the validity of the research will be looked at in greater depth later on in the paper however in order to evaluate the success of dietary restraint we must first understand and take a look at the background to this theory.
Dietary restraint has its roots firmly in innovative work carried out in the late 1960’s to test psychosomatic theory (Schachter, Goldman & Gordon., 1968) which led Schachter to propose externality theory (Schachter, 1971b; Schachter & Rodin, 1974). This theory of human obesity posits comparability between obese rats and humans whom when compared to their non-obese equivalents showed less willingness to obtain food and seemed less sensitive to its preload however, were more influenced by the sight and taste of the food (Mela & Rogers, 1998). This theory, in a similar way to psychosomatic theory, supported the idea that obese humans were far less influenced by internal physiological factors such as internal hunger; but in contrast to psychosomatic theory’s reliance on internal, emotional factors supported the importance of external factors in mediating eating behaviours in...