The interrelationship between dietary restraint and negative physical self: a network analysis and comparison

Dietary restraint is tightly linked with body image disturbances such as negative physical self, yet network analytic investigations remain scarce. This study aimed to explore their structural relationships and system states and the potential effects moderated by gender and weight status.

In a large-scale dataset (N = 1585), we estimated a Gaussian graphical network model of dietary restraint and negative physical self, evaluated its accuracy and stability, and compared networks across gender and weight status.

Guilt after overeating was the core manifestation, with the highest node centrality, followed by fatness concern and kilograms over desired weight. No gender differences emerged, but weight-status differences were significant: people with overweight/obesity exhibited lower global strength and weaker edge weights in certain connections than their healthy‑weight counterparts.

These findings suggest negative emotions about overeating and negative perceptions of fatness are the crux in the complex interplay between dietary restraint and negative physical self, with weight status serving as an important moderator, which informs that improving dietary restraint is better achieved by reducing negative processing of overeating and fatness, rather than by targeting restrained eating itself, and that intervention should be tailored to weight status.