Browsing by Author "Vuorela, Laura"

Objective: We studied changes in eating behaviors over a 12-month period following bariatric surgery versus a dietary intervention. Methods: We examined eating behaviors through validated questionnaires (the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, and the Binge-Eating Scale) in 120 bariatric surgery participants and 19 participants undergoing a dietary intervention. We also measured body weight, body composition (DEXA scan), and metabolic features (blood samples and OGTT), comparing the surgery and dieting groups before, at 5–6 months, and at 12 months, respectively, after the weight loss intervention began. Results: We observed greater weight loss and metabolic improvements following surgery compared with dieting. Surgery led to a decreased or unchanged eating restraint, while dieting accompanied increases in these eating behaviors. Both weight loss methods reduced disinhibited eating, binge eating, external eating, and hunger susceptibility. While surgery primarily led to a decreased hunger perception and sensitivity to external eating triggers, the dieting group acquired behaviors to cope with sustained hunger and eating triggers. Body weight at baseline and the amount of weight change over time may have affected the size of the behavioral changes. We found that per percentage of weight loss the size of behavioral changes was not different between diet and surgery groups. This implies that the amount of weight loss and the size of behavioral change may go hand in hand. Conclusions: Surgery led to less restrained eating, hunger susceptibility, and external eating, while after dieting, learnt behaviors were used to limit food intake.