Metabolic, psychological, and health correlates of dietary restraint in healthy postmenopausal women

Background. Dietary restraint, a term used to describe the intentional cont rol of food intake to prevent weight gain or promote weight loss, is common ly practiced by older adults. but little is known about its effects on phys iology and metabolism. Methods. We therefore compared a wide range of parameters between groups of healthy non-obese postmenopausol women classified psychometrically as unre strained eaters (body mass index [BMI] 23.8 +/- 0.6 [SEM] kg/m(2), n = 28) or restrained eaters (BMI 24.5 +/- 0.5. n = 39). Measurements were mode of reported micronutrient intakes, cardiopulmonary function, hematology, body temperature, skin thickness, bone mass, and immune function: in addition, s elf-perceived health, mood, and some dimensions of eating behavior were ass essed by questionnaire. Results. Macronutrient and micronutrient intakes were not significantly dif ferent between restrained and unrestrained eaters reporting energy intake t o within 30% of predicted total energy expenditure. Restrained eaters had s ignificantly lower hemoglobin (12.9 +/- 0.1 [SEM] vs 13.2 +/- 0.1 g/dl: p < .05), but values were within the normal range in both groups. In addition, restrained eaters scored significantly higher on the Eating Attitudes Test (p < .01) and drive-for-thinness (p < .001) and maturity fears (p < .05) s ubscores of the Eating Disorders Inventory. but values were again within th e normal range. No other parameter differed significantly between groups. Conclusions. In this normal-weight population, restrained eating was not as sociated with detrimental effects in a wide range of physiological, metabol ic, and health characteristics. Further work is needed to determine the rel evance of these results to the general population.