Changes in Food Cravings during Low‐Calorie and Very‐Low‐Calorie Diets

Abstract

MARTIN, CORBY K., PATRICK M. O'NEIL, AND LAURA PAWLOW. Changes in food cravings during lowcalorie and very-low-calorie diets. Obesity. 2006;14: 115-121. Objective: This study examined food cravings during a primarily food-based low-calorie diet (LCD) and a supplement-based very-LCD (VLCD). Research Methods and Procedures:The Food Craving Inventory (FCI) was used to measure general cravings and cravings for specific types of foods (sweets, high fats, carbohydrates/starches, and fast food fats). The FCI was completed by participants in the LCD and VLCD programs at baseline and after 11 weeks of dieting. The VLCD group also completed the FCI at Week 6 and after 5 weeks of a refeeding phase, when their diet consisted primarily of solid food. Results: From baseline to Week 12, craving decreases were greater for the VLCD group than for the LCD group on all measures. All craving measures decreased significantly for the VLCD group. The LCD group experienced a marginally significant decrease in sweet cravings. Within the VLCD group, all craving measures decreased significantly by Week 6 and did not change thereafter, including after resumption of solid food intake, and craving scores during all dieting points were lower than baseline. Changes in cravings were not related to weight loss. Discussion: Cravings did not increase during either diet; all changes represented decreases. Compared with a primarily food-based diet (LCD), a more restrictive supplement-based diet (VLCD) resulted in significantly larger decreases in food cravings that occurred by the end of the 5th week of supplement use and did not rebound with resumption of solid food intake. The results of this study suggest that food cravings diminish with calorie restriction.

The association between food cravings and consumption of specific foods in a laboratory taste test

“…Indeed, food cravings have been conceptualized as a conditioned expression of hunger, where food cravings are conditioned by pairing the consumption of a particular food with hunger (Gibson & Desmond, 1999;Zellner, GarrigaTrillo, Rohm, Centeno, & Parker, 1999). The results of a recent study support this hypothesis by demonstrating that cravings decrease during calorie-restrictive diets, with diets that restrict food variety being associated with larger decreases incravings than diets offering more variety (Martin et al, 2006). In this case, it is possible that cravings decreased during the more restrictive monotonous diet because there were fewer opportunities for conditioning, since food intake was restricted and limited in variety.…”

“…Moreover, the high fats scale has been found to distinguish obese from lean individuals (White et al, 2002) and the FCI scales have been found to be sensitive to calorie restriction or dieting, with craving scores decreasing during dieting (Martin et al, 2006).…”

“…Research on food cravings has identified important associations between food cravings and BMI (White, Whisenhunt, Williamson, Greenway, & Netemeyer, 2002), binge eating (White & Grilo, 2005), gender (Lafay et al, 2001), and weight loss (Martin, O'Neil, & Pawlow, 2006). In addition, studies employing food diaries to measure food intake have reported associations between food craving and caloric intake (Hill, Weaver, & Blundell, 1991;Lafay et al, 2001).…”

Food cravings and energy regulation: the characteristics of craved foods and their relationship with eating behaviors and weight change during 6 months of dietary energy restriction

“…25 However, mixed results have been found when looking at the effect of longer-term weight loss diet interventions on food cravings. 19,23,24,26 Some studies have reported a decrease in cravings with consumption of low-energy diets, especially monotonous programs. 23,24,26 However, this observation is seemingly at odds with the separate finding that missing favorite foods is a commonly cited cause of giving up a weight loss diet.…”

“…[18][19][20] More recently, it has been suggested that cravings may increase with dietary monotony without energy restriction (ER); 21,22 however, such suggestions appear to be contradicted by other studies using monotonous diets to achieve ER that have observed decreases in cravings. 23,24 The role of food cravings in the success, or lack of success, with dieting is also uncertain. Previous data have suggested that a short-term reduction of energy intake may increase the relative reinforcing value of food.…”