Real-time changes in emotion regulation and loss of control eating

Difficulties in emotion regulation are an important theoretical construct implicated in the maintenance of loss of control eating. In this study, 45 community and college participants who reported loss of control eating at least once per week carried tablets for 2 weeks, responding to random assessments throughout each day. We compared trajectories of emotion regulation abilities before and after loss of control eating episodes (using average loss of control eating episode time to divide non-loss-of-control eating days). Emotion regulation abilities remained stable on non-loss-of-control eating days, but there was a significant increase in emotion regulation difficulties after loss of control eating episodes. These results suggest that increases in emotion regulation difficulties are not responsible for initiation of loss of control eating.