Disinhibition: its effects on appetite and weight regulation E. J. Bryant 1 , N. A. King 2 and J. E. Blundell 1 1 Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK; 2 Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Human Movement Studies, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Received 2 July 2007; revised 7 November 2007; accepted 14 November 2007 Address for correspondence: Eleanor Bryant, Centre for Psychological Study, Richmond Building, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP, UK. E-mail: e.j.bryant@bradford.ac.uk Summary Over the past 30 years, the understanding of eating behaviour has been dominated by the concept of dietary restraint. However, the development of the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire introduced two other factors, Disinhibition and Hunger, which have not received as much recognition in the literature. The objective of this review was to explore the relationship of the Disinhibition factor with weight regulation, food choice and eating disorders, and to consider its aetiology. The review indicates that Disinhibition is an important eating behaviour trait. It is associated not only with a higher body mass index and obesity, but also with mediating variables, such as less healthful food choices, which contribute to overweight/obesity and poorer health. Disinhibition is also implicated in eating disorders and contributes to eating disorder severity. It has been demonstrated that Disinhibition is predictive of poorer success at weight loss, and of weight regain after weight loss regimes and is associated with lower self-esteem, low physical activity and poor psychological health. Disinhibition therefore emerges as an important and dynamic trait, with influences that go beyond eating behaviour and incorporate other behaviours which contribute to weight regulation and obesity. The characteristics of Disinhibition itself therefore reflect many compo- nents representative of a thrifty type of physiology. We propose that the trait of Disinhibition be more appropriately renamed as ‘opportunistic eating’ or ‘thrifty behaviour’. Keywords: Appetite, disinhibition, eating behaviour, weight regulation. obesity reviews (2007) 9, 409–419 Introduction It has been over 30 years since the most widely used psychometric tool in the field of eating and obesity was developed by Stunkard and Messick (1). Following the emergence of the Restraint scale (2) and the development of the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) (1), Restraint is the factor which has received most of the attention in the literature in relation to eating disorders, weight gain, success at weight loss and dieting. However, over this time the Disinhibition scale has gradually come to prominence because of the widespread use of the TFEQ, with over 100 published studies addressing the TFEQ factors and eating and health behaviours. The TFEQ measures three factors: Restraint, Disinhibi- tion and Hunger. Restraint refers to concern overweight control and strategies which are adopted to achieve this. For instance, avoiding fattening foods, eating small por- tions and stopping eating before reaching satiation are all strategies typically used to limit food intake. Disinhibi- tion reflects a tendency towards over-eating and eating opportunistically in an obesigenic environment. Examples include eating in response to negative affect, over-eating when others are eating, not being able to resist stimulation to eat and over-eating in response to the palatability of food. The factor of Hunger is concerned with the extent to which hunger feelings are perceived and the extent to which such feelings evoke food intake. For example, feeling so obesity reviews doi: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2007.00426.x 409 © 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 International Association for the Study of Obesity. obesity reviews 9, 409–419