Longitudinal Changes in Food Addiction Symptoms and Body Weight among Adults in a Behavioral Weight-Loss Program

Interest in food addiction (FA) has increased, but little is known about its clinical implications or potential treatments. Using secondary analyses from a randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the associations between changes in FA, body weight, and “problem food” consumption during a 22-month behavioral weight-loss program consisting of an initial four-month in-person intervention, 12-month extended-care, and six-month follow-up (n = 182). Food addiction was measured using the Yale Food Addiction Scale. “Problem foods” were identified from the literature and self-reporting. Multilevel modeling was used as the primary method of analysis. We hypothesized that reductions in problem food consumption during the initial treatment phase would be associated with long-term (22-month) FA reductions. As expected, we found that reductions in problem foods were associated with greater initial reductions in FA symptoms; however, they were also associated with a sharper rebound in symptoms over time (p = 0.016), resulting in no significant difference at Month 22 (p = 0.856). Next, we hypothesized that long-term changes in FA would be associated with long-term changes in body weight. Although both FA and weight decreased over time (ps < 0.05), month-to-month changes in FA were not associated with month-to-month changes in weight (p = 0.706). Instead, higher overall FA (i.e., mean scores over the course of the study) were associated with less weight loss (p = 0.008) over time. Finally, we hypothesized that initial reductions in problem food consumption would be associated with long-term reductions in weight, but this relationship was not significant (ps > 0.05). Given the complexity of the findings, more research is needed to identify interventions for long-term changes in FA and to elucidate the associations between problem foods, FA, and weight.