Negative emotion differentiation, but not gastric interoception, is linked to “feeling fat” among women with elevated eating pathology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6005507 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Naomi G Hill (0000-0002-6955-1746, Ohio University, corresponding author), K Jean Forney (0000-0002-8215-9335, Ohio University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Pages | 101964 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Eating Behaviors (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1471-0153 • E-ISSN: 1873-7358 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2025.101964 |
| PMID | 40088625 |
| OpenAlex | W4408360080 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
“Feeling fat” is the subjective sensation of being overweight, which is not fully explained by one's body weight. Disruptions in emotion differentiation and gastric interoception may contribute to feeling fat. We hypothesized that poor negative emotion differentiation and poor gastric interoceptive accuracy would each be associated with higher levels of feeling fat after adjusting for negative affect intensity and body fat percentage. Cisgender female university students (N = 69; M(SD) age = 20.3(3.7), 60.9 % heterosexual, 91.3 % white) completed questionnaires and the two-step water load test. Regression analyses, which adjusted for negative affect intensity and body fat percentage, found that neither negative emotion differentiation (B ≤ 0.001, p = .52) nor gastric interoceptive accuracy (B = 0.01, p = .97) were related to feeling fat. Post hoc, eating pathology severity moderated the relationship between negative emotion differentiation and feeling fat (B = −6.97, p = .03); poorer negative emotion differentiation was associated with greater feeling fat for those with Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire Global Scores above 1.47 (B = −5.79, p = .050). The relationship between gastric interoception and feeling fat did not vary by eating pathology severity (B = −0.04 , p = .79). Self-reported feeling full also contributed to feeling fat after consuming water to perceived maximum fullness ( p < .001); however, changes in feeling full were not associated with changes in feeling fat across the task ( p = .09). Poorer negative emotion differentiation is associated with feeling fat for those with elevated eating pathology. Individuals with elevated eating pathology may benefit from improving their ability to label and understand emotions to reduce feeling fat. Future research should test whether changes in feeling full cause feeling fat. • Gastric interoceptive accuracy was not associated with feeling fat. • Emotion differentiation was not associated with feeling fat in the full sample. • Eating pathology interacted with emotion differentiation to understand feeling fat. • Feeling full contributed to feeling fat after consuming water to maximum fullness. • Improving emotion differentiation may reduce feeling fat at high eating pathology
Developmental psychology · Feeling · Interoception · Perception · Clinical Psychology · Eating Disorders and Behaviors · Neuroscience · Pain Management and Placebo Effect · Psychology · Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments · Social Psychology
Knowing what you're feeling and knowing what to do about it
Knowing your own heart
The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, Version 2 (Maia-2)
Assessment of eating disorders
Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect
Dynamic relationships among feeling fat, fear of weight gain, and eating disorder symptoms in an eating disorder sample
Intraclass correlations
| Highly cited | No |
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