Emotional eating as predictor of weight loss 2 years after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass

There has been little agreement on the predictive value of emotional eating on weight loss outcomes after bariatric surgery. The aim of this study was to examine the predictive value of preoperative emotional eating, in response to clearly labelled emotions and diffuse emotions, on excess weight loss (EWL) and total weight loss (TWL) 2 years after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). All participants included in this retrospective cohort study were screened for RYGB surgery by a multidisciplinary team. The level of emotional eating was derived from the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ); the level of psychological variables from the Symptom Checklist-90. Participants were clustered, based on their DEBQ score, in high and low emotional eaters. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to examine the association between preoperative emotional eating and EWL, and TWL. There were no significant differences in EWL of the 172 included participants, defined as either high or low emotional eaters (EWL 82.7% +/- 18.2 versus 82.4% +/- 21.3, respectively). Based on the regression analysis, emotional eating was not significantly associated with EWL, nor with TWL. When corrected for psychological, demographic and biological variables, preoperative emotional eating in response to diffuse emotions negatively affected EWL (beta = -0.16, P = 0.048), although this was not applicable for TWL. Preoperative emotional eating does not seem to influence EWL, nor TWL 2 years after RYGB. Since this study faced multiple limitations, further investigation is required regarding the predictive value of emotional eating.