Zeitschrift für Adipositas- und Gewichtsverlusttherapie

Abstrakt

Greater Food-Related Stroop Interference Following Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention

Kathryn E Demos, Jeanne M McCaffery, Sara A Cournoyer, Caroline A Wunsch and Rena R Wing

Objective: Individuals who have successfully lost and maintained weight have slower reaction times on foodrelated Stroop tasks, indicating greater cognitive interference to food stimuli compared to obese and normal weight individuals. It remains unclear whether this interference is a preexisting characteristic of weight loss maintainers or if food-interference changes in obese individuals as they lose weight. Method: To examine potential changes in food-related interference, a food-Stroop paradigm was used to measure responses to food versus non-food words in 13 obese women before and after a 12-week behavioral weight loss program. Results: Participants achieved a mean weight loss of 5.12 kg through the behavioral weight loss program. Their reaction time to food words became significantly slower (p<0.001) and they made significantly more errors (p<0.01) following treatment. Discussion: These findings suggest that through behavioral weight loss treatment obese individuals experience increased interference toward food words, which may reflect increased salience of food-related cues. Future research is needed to determine whether increases in interference are related to better weight loss and maintenance.