High-disinhibition restrained eaters are disinhibited by self-regulatory depletion in the food-related inhibitory control

- The first study investigating the influences of ego-depletion on food related inhibitory control among restrained eaters.
- Disinhibited restrained eaters show a decrease of food related inhibitory control after ego-depletion while others do not.
- This study extends prior research on disinhibition effect by testing food-specific inhibitory control after ego-depletion.
- Our study has extended previous research on disinhibition effect by testing the food-specific inhibitory control rather than actual food intake after ego-depletion.

Restrained eating for weight control and loss is becoming highly prevalent in many affluent societies, while most of the restrained eaters are rather unsuccessful in the long term. According to the strength model of self-control, the disinhibition effect of restrained eaters may occur after the depletion of self-control resources. However, no work has examined the direct impact of self-control resources on inhibitory control ability of restrained eaters. This study investigated the influences of self-control resources on the food-related inhibitory control among high-restraint/low-disinhibition restrained eaters, high-restraint/high-disinhibition restrained eaters and unrestrained eaters using stop signal task. Results reveal that there's no difference of food-related inhibitory control between three groups when the self-control resources are non-depleted, while high-restraint/high-disinhibition restrained eaters showing a decrease of food-related inhibitory control after ego-depletion. This disinhibition effect only seems to occur in samples of restrained eaters with a high tendency toward overeating.