Do Weight Suppression and Body Mass Index Predict Daily Body Image and Eating Urges in Non-Clinical Adults?

Introduction: The current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine whether body mass index (BMI) and weight suppression (highest minus current weight) predicted momentary body dissatisfaction and disordered eating urges, including dietary restriction, excessive exercise, binge eating, and unhealthy eating, and whether trait eating disorder (ED) symptoms moderated these associations.

Method: Data were collected from 686 adults (75% female), comprising community participants and undergraduate students, through six daily EMA surveys over seven days (42 possible assessments).

Results: Multilevel models showed that lower BMI (p = 0.005) and greater weight suppression (p = 0.004) predicted higher average state body dissatisfaction, while higher BMI (p < 0.001) and greater weight suppression (p = 0.039) predicted stronger urges for unhealthy eating.

Discussion: ED symptomatology moderated the relationship between BMI and dietary restraint, such that BMI positively predicted restraint urges at low levels of ED symptoms but negatively predicted them at high levels. No other moderating effects of ED symptomatology were observed for BMI or weight suppression on the remaining state-based outcomes. Overall, both weight-based severity indicators (BMI and weight suppression) demonstrated limited utility for indexing ED-related state-based variables in a female non-clinical sample. Future studies should examine additional weight-related severity indicators across both non-clinical and clinical ED samples.