Patterns of Emotional Eating Changes After Sleeve Gastrectomy

Emotional eating is very common among metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) candidates. However, the changes of emotional eating after sleeve gastrectomy (SG), its impact on short-term weight loss outcomes, and sex differences in emotional eating are still not well established.

To study the changes of emotional eating changes after SG and its impact on short-term weight loss.

University Hospital, United States.

122 patients who had SG were included. Patient demographics, weight loss, and pre- and post-operative emotional eating scores were collected. Emotional eating was measured by the Coping subscale of the Palatable Eating Motives Scale.

Of the 122 patients enrolled, 95 completed both the pre-operative and post-operative surveys (77.87%). For the whole study population, the average emotional eating scores decreased significantly from 1.31 ± 1.17 in pre-op to 1.01 ± 1.16 one year after SG (p = .007). Women reported greater emotional eating at baseline and had significantly lower scores after MBS, 1.44 ± 1.17 versus 1.05 ± 1.13 (p = .006). On the other hand, men had much lower emotional eating at baseline and had no changes after MBS, 0.90 ± 1.10 versus 0.86 ± 1.27, (p = .820). Greater emotional eating at baseline predicted greater excess body weight loss one year after surgery (p = .047). Although not statistically significant, there was a sharp increase of intense eating behavior after SG.

Emotional eating decreased significantly in female patients, but not in male patients, one year after SG. Patients with higher emotional eating scores before surgery had greater weight loss one year after SG. MBS-induced weight loss may be mediated, in part, by improvements in eating behaviors.