Facts Behind the Facade: Is There More to Dieting Than Meets the Eye?

Introduction "I wish that compulsive eating, bingeing, dieting, throwing up, and starving were oddities rather than the routine experiences of so many years and women today" (Orbach: 1997: vii). Almost two decades on, Orbach's wish has yet to become a reality. The incidence of eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors in Western as well as Non-Western countries has been increasing in recent years (Makino et al., 2004). Furthermore, there has also been an increase of eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS) (Machado et al., 2006). This increase has been attributed to various factors, including social, cultural, familial (Polivy & Herman, 2002, Stice, 1998), individual and personality factors (Polivy & Herman, 2002). It has been well documented that disordered eating behaviors are widespread (Machado et al., 2006) and may lead to the development of full-blown eating disorders (Polivy & Herman, 2002). This paper is going to concentrate on a specific category of disordered eating behaviors-yo-yo dieting/weight cycling. Yo-yo dieting has been defined as the process of going on and off diets repeatedly which subsequently causes weight loss and regain (Brownell & Rodin, 1994; Muls et al., 1995; National Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity, 1994; Qazi & Keval, 2013). To date, the prevalence of yo-yo dieting has not been established due to the use of different criteria to assess weight cycling by different studies (Kensinger et al., 1998; Lahti-Koski et al., 2005). However, there is evidence to support that it is a very common and widespread phenomenon (Qazi & Keval, 2013). The aim of this paper is to highlight the more obscure aspects of this behavior, rather than the salient and much discussed ones such as social, cultural, familial and media influences (Polivy & Herman, 2002, Stice, 1998) and to analyze the factors responsible for the development and maintenance of this behavior. Qazi and Keval (2013) have discussed in-depth other influencing factors that trigger frequent dieting episodes among women such as socio-cultural pressure and the physical and mental impact of yo-yo dieting on women. This paper builds on and incorporates the previous analysis (Qazi and Keval, 2013) and in addition, utilizes feminist perspectives to further highlight and elaborate on the less apparent factors which have been briefly discussed by Qazi and Keval (2013) that lead to the development and maintenance of this behavior. Prevalence of Disordered Eating Behaviors Research has revealed that 35%-60% of women are chronic dieters (Polivy & Herman, 2007). Furthermore, dieters are eight times more at risk of developing eating disorders that nondieters (Patton, 1990). Various longitudinal studies indicate that a percentage of normal dieters may evolve into pathological dieters and there is a possibility of some of them developing partial or full-blown eating disorders (Polivy & Herman, 2002; Shisslak et al. 1995). Evidence also suggests that concern regarding weight and frequent dieting episodes may help in predicting development of an eating disorder (e.g. Polivy & Herman, 2002; Shisslak et al., 1995; Stice et al. 1998). Furthermore, as there is also evidence to support the theory that dieters evolve into eating-disordered individuals (Shisslak et al, 1995), it is important to identify the factors responsible for triggering yo-yo dieting in women and strategies to help prevent women from developing full-blown eating disorders. To be noted, however, is that all normal dieters are not prone to developing full-blown eating disorders (Polivy & Herman, 2002). Methodology A qualitative study was carried out on nine participants who revealed that they were engaged in yo-yo dieting. The findings of this study derived via thematic analysis are documented elsewhere (Qazi & Keval, 2013). Semi-structured interviews were carried out to explore the experiences of these women and from these interview transcripts, this paper is going to concentrate on four interviewees' transcripts and utilize feminist perspectives to further analyze the thematically-derived data. …