Weight Loss Strategies, Stress, and Cognitive Function: Supervised Versus Unsupervised Dieting

The early stages of dieting to lose weight have been associated with neuro-psychological impairments. Previous work has not elucidated whether these impairments are a function solely of unsupported or supported dieting. Raised cortico-steroid levels have been implicated as a possible causal mechanism. Healthy, overweight, pre-menopausal women were randomised to one of three conditions in which they dieted either as part of a commercially available weight loss group, dieted without any group support or acted as non-dieting controls for 8 weeks. Testing occurred at baseline and at 1, 4 and 8 weeks post baseline. During each session, participants completed measures of simple reaction time, motor speed, vigilance, immediate verbal recall, visuo-spatial processing and (at Week 1 only) executive function. Cortisol levels were gathered at the beginning and 30 min into each test session, via saliva samples. Also, food intake was self-recorded prior to each session and fasting body weight and percentage body fat were measured at each session. Participants in the unsupported diet condition displayed poorer vigilance performance (p = 0.001) and impaired executive planning function (p = 0.013) (along with a marginally significant trend for poorer visual recall (p = 0.089)) after 1 week of dieting. No such impairments were observed in the other two groups. In addition, the unsupported dieters experienced a significant rise in salivary cortisol levels after 1 week of dieting (p < 0.001). Both dieting groups lost roughly the same amount of body mass (p = 0.011) over the course of the 8 weeks of dieting, although only the unsupported dieters experienced a significant drop in percentage body fat over the course of dieting (p = 0.016). The precise causal nature of the relationship between stress, cortisol, unsupported dieting and cognitive function is, however, uncertain and should be the focus of further research.