It is widely assumed that people with obesity have several common eating patterns, including breakfast-skipping (1), eating during the night (2) and high fast-food consumption (3). However, differences in individual meal and dietary patterns may be crucial to optimizing obesity treatment. Therefore, we investigated the inter-individual variation in eating patterns, hypothesizing that individuals with obesity show different dietary and meal patterns, and that these associate with self-reported energy intake (rEI) and/or anthropometric measures. Cross-sectional data from 192 participants (aged 20–55 years) with obesity, including 6 days of weighed food records, were analyzed. Meal patterns and dietary patterns were derived using exploratory hierarchical cluster analysis and k-means cluster analysis, respectively. Five clear meal patterns were found based on the time-of-day with the highest mean rEI. The daily rEI (mean ± SD kcal) was highest among “midnight-eaters” (2550 ± 550), and significantly (p < 0.05) higher than “dinner-eaters” (2060 ± 550), “lunch-eaters” (2080 ± 520), and “supper-eaters” (2100 ± 460), but not “regular-eaters” (2330 ± 650). Despite differences of up to 490 kcal between meal patterns, there were no significant differences in anthropometric measures or physical activity level (PAL). Four dietary patterns were also found with significant differences in intake of specific food groups, but without significant differences in anthropometry, PAL, or rEI. Our data highlight meal timing as a determinant of individual energy intake in people with obesity. The study supports the importance of considering a person’s specific meal pattern, with possible implications for more person-focused guidelines and targeted advice.

IntroductionCyberbullying has been extensively studied and is associated with adverse mental health outcomes in adolescents. However, adolescents may also experience a range of other negative experiences, such as name-calling, threats, exclusion, and unwanted attention or contact from others. Few studies have investigated how adolescents’ mental health is affected by these relatively common and less severe types of negative experiences on social media (SOME). To assess the association between mental health outcomes and two aspects of negative experiences on SOME; unwanted attention and negative acts and exclusion.MethodsThis study is based on a survey conducted in 2020/21 consisting of 3,253 Norwegian adolescents (56% female, Mage = 17 years). Eight statements about negative experiences on SOME were asked and combined into two composite measures: “Unwanted attention from others” and “Negative acts and exclusion.” Dependent variables in regression models were symptoms of anxiety, symptoms of depression, and mental well-being. Covariates in all models included age, gender, subjective socioeconomic status, and amount of SOME-use.ResultsBoth “negative acts and exclusion” and “unwanted attention from others” on SOME were consistently positively associated with self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety, and negatively associated with mental well-being in both crude and adjusted analysis.DiscussionThe results are indicative of an important relationship between experiencing negative events on SOME, even presumably less severe events, and worse mental health and well-being. Future research should extricate the potential causal relationship between negative experiences on SOME and mental health, as well as exploring potential precipitating and intermediating factors.

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Background Social media use, perfectionism, and eating disturbances have all increased over the last decades. Some studied indicate that there is a relationship between being exposed to others self-presentation on social media and eating disturbances. Studies also show that the relationship between focus on self-presentation and highly visual social media is stronger than for non-visual social media, hence facilitating upward social comparison. Nevertheless, no previous studies have investigated the link between adolescents focus on their own self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media, and perfectionism and eating disturbances, which is the aim of the present study.Method The present study is based on a cross-sectional survey from the “LifeOnSoMe”-study (N = 3725), conducted in 2020 and 2021. Respondents were high school students (mean age 17.3 years, 55% females) in Bergen, Norway. Multiple regression analysis was performed where SPAUSCIS, a measure of self-presentation and upward social comparison, was the independent variable. Perfectionism, eating disturbance and self-reported eating disorder were dependent variables. Self-reported age, gender, and subjective socioeconomic status were used as covariates, as well as frequency and duration of social media use. Regression models were performed to compare proportions across the median split of SPAUSCIS, and potential gender-moderation were assessed for the associations with perfectionism and eating disturbance.Results The multiple regression analysis showed that increased focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media were positively associated with both perfectionism (standardised coefficient 0.28) and eating disturbance. A stronger association for girls than boys was found for eating disturbance (standardised coefficient 0.39 for girls and 0.29 for boys). There was no gender moderation for perfectionism.Conclusions Findings suggest that focus on self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media is associated with perfectionism, eating disturbance and eating disorder. We recommend promoting a healthy use of social media. This could be established through increasing adolescents’ ability to reflect on and think critically about self-presentation and upward social comparison on social media.