Self-regulation among higher weight conditions

Pages: 151-154
Chandani Mehta and Tara Singh (Department of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh)

The number of people around the world with greater than their ideal body weight is increasing. The notion of perfect body that media has been portraying for the past 4 decades is in contradiction with the epidemic of overweight and obesity globally. The presence of an imbalanced diet and sedentary life-style promotes overweight and obesity alongside with numerous other factors. Role of self-regulation, in this regard, is of great importance. An important cause of obesity is poor self regulation. Self-regulation enables people to make plans, choose from alternatives, control impulses, inhibit unwanted thoughts and regulate social behaviour. It has been found that due to low self regulation obese people face problem in controlling eating behaviour which results in overeating as well as high energy intake and less energy expenditure leading to excess weight gain. Although many proposals for this phenomenon have been put forth by the researchers, the underlying relationship between obesity and self regulation is not yet clear. Understanding this interaction of obesity and self regulation should help prevent and treat obesity.