Preoperative eating behavior and weight-loss following gastric banding for obesity

Background and Methods: The relationships between cognitive restraint and the tendency to disinhibition, as assessed by the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), and the weight loss at 1 year following gastric banding were evaluated. Results: A significant predictability of the TFEQ Disinhibition score on the postoperative weight reduction was observed, while the amount of weight lost was negatively related to the preoperative TFEQ Cognitive Restraint score. Conclusion: It must then be hypothesized that the operated subjects feel a strong aversive stimulus and then they are led to reduce their food consumption only when they lose control and tend to overeat. The discomfort due to proximal gastric pouch distension facilitates the development of food aversion and then both the decrease of food intake and a change in eating behavior. The subjects must therefore be encouraged to adopt an eating style that cannot allow them to avoid such a feeling.