Improving psychological treatment for obesity. Which eating behaviours should we target?

People who are obese and want to lose weight without surgery deserve the best treatment that we can offer. In the absence of robust and enduring treatment effects for psychological interventions for obesity, it is useful to return to first principles. From a behavioural perspective, the first task is to identify the full range of target eating behaviours involved in obesity. Surprisingly, a consensus on the key target eating behaviours typically involved in obesity does not seem to currently exist. In this opinion piece, we discuss which eating behaviours might be important to consider when treating obesity, and provide a self-report questionnaire that aims to identify these behaviours (see Supplementary material). We believe that it is important to be aware of the full range of eating behaviours that are potentially relevant to obesity, as different eating behaviours may be problematic for different people. Target eating behaviours associated with obesity may also be different from those of key relevance to eating disorders. Factors that should be taken into account when assessing target eating behaviours and developing effective treatments for obesity are also discussed. Particular attention is paid to ‘grazing,’ a relatively neglected high risk eating behaviour for weight gain.

► Different eating behaviours are problematic for different people who are obese.
► A list is provided of target eating behaviours likely to be associated with obesity.
► Particular attention is paid to grazing, a relatively neglected problem.
► Suggestions for more effective assessment and treatment of obesity are made.