Development of a scale to measure reasons for eating less healthily after exercise: the compensatory unhealthy eating scale

Abstract

Objective: Patterns of 'compensatory eating' following exercise are likely to be harmful for long-term health and counterproductive for weight loss goals. However, little is known about reasons why people eat unhealthily after exercising. Thus, we aimed to develop a measure that assesses reasons why people engage in compensatory unhealthy eating. Method: A multi-stage approach using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was used to develop and replicate a scale and validate its psychometric properties in three different samples. Participants (total N = 814) rated their agreement with statements capturing different reasons for eating less healthily after exercise. Results: Factor analysis revealed four distinct factors underlying compensatory eating: Reward for Effort, Permission to Consume, Need to Consume, and Reduced Self-Control. The resulting Compensatory Unhealthy Eating Scale (CUES) had good internal consistency and convergent validity. Conclusion: The CUES has utility as a tool to assess compensatory eating behaviour. Further research should examine who is most likely to compensate and under what circumstances. Broadening current knowledge of compensatory eating after exercise may facilitate development of strategies to improve health behaviour regulation.

Enrichment and Conflict Between Work and Health Behaviors: New Scales for Assessing How Work Relates to Physical Exercise and Healthy Eating

“…Work-to-eating enrichment, however, was positively related to eating sugar-intense products such as cakes and chocolate (i.e., foods that are usually seen as unhealthy; Bucher et al, 2015). This finding might be explained by a compensatory process such as morale licensing (Reily et al, 2020). When perceiving work as contributing to healthy eating by, for instance, eating fruits and vegetables one might feel entitled to consume less healthy food as well, resulting in a higher consumption of sugar-intense food.…”