A comparison of motivational structure and eating behaviors between overweight and obese and normal weight women

This study was conducted to investigate motivational structure (MS) and eating behavior of the women, registered in one of the sports clubs in Mashhad city, North East of Iran. In this descriptive study, sixty overweight women (Mean of BMI=29.93 kg/m2, SD=3.71) and sixty normal weight women (Mean BMI=21.36 kg/m2, SD=1.79) completed the Personal Concern Inventory (PCI) and Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ). To test the hypotheses of the study, MANCOVA, ANOVA and Regression analysis were used. The results showed that, compared with controls, overweight and obese women had a more MS (P≥0.001), and on the DEBQ, they scored higher on emotional eating (P≥0.001) (including confused emotions (P≥0.001) and clearly labeled emotions (P≥0.001)) and external eating (P=0.001). Moreover, overweight and obese women who reported frequent failures with their diet had more maladaptive MS (P≥0.001) than overweight and obese who are successful in their diets. Furthermore, the results of hierarchical Regression analyses showed that motivational structure can predict the participant's BMI (P≥0.001) and the number of dieter's failures (P≥0.001), independent of the effects of age and education. Eating style could predict BMI (P≥0.001). Overweight and obese women had more maladaptive MS than women withnormal weight, and the two groups had a different eating behavior. Overweight and obese women who reported frequent failures with their diet had more maladaptive MS than those with successful dieting history. Moreover, motivational structure could predict the participant's BMI and the number of dieter's failures. Eating style could predict the BMI.