Obesity is one of the most important health problems nowadays. In addition to the direct physical consequences, it is also a risk factor in the development of psychological (Eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, depression, anxiety, etc.) and social problems. Among there, body dissatisfaction is key for development and maintenance of such problems.OBJECTIVE:to deepen the effectiveness of the body exposure treatment, both in its pure form and guided modality in subjective, psychological and attentional levels in people with body dissatisfaction and obesity.METHODS:Evaluations were carried out in a total of 16 women with obesity and body dissatisfaction at the beginning and end of 6 treatment sessions of pure exposure in front of the mirror. The changes experienced at the subjective level (questionnaires and subjective discomfort during the sessions) and psychophysiological (eye-tracking and heart rate) were analyzed.RESULTS:Pure exposure treatment reduces negative thoughts and emotions towards the body itself, as well as the experienced discomfort towards the most conflictive parts. Selective attention to those parts of the body classified as uglier by the participants (especially the rear view of the body) show a decrease in physiological reactivity.CONCLUSIONS:Pure exposure treatment seems to be effective in reducing subjective and psychological symptoms associated with body dissatisfaction in people with obesity, this technique could be considered a good choice for the treatment of body dissatisfaction. This step is essential to guarantee the long-term therapeutic success of any other treatment (nutritional or/and physical activity) in the future.

This study examined whether poor health habits – those associated with a higher risk of developing eating disorders or obesity – modified adolescents’ emotions toward sweet food cues. We aimed to answer the following questions: Is adolescent obesity accompanied by excessive enjoyment of sweets? Or is any risk habit, regardless its stronger association with obesity or disordered eating, associated with less food enjoyment? 552 Spanish adolescents (279 females) viewed pictures of sweets interspersed with emotional images as controls. Participants recorded their feelings of pleasure, activation, control, and food craving while looking at each picture; then answered questions on their general health, food intake, and physical activity; finally, their body mass index was estimated. We performed MANCOVAs on feelings during sweets, including individual risk habits as factors, and sex, age, and hunger as covariates. We performed the same analysis on emotional and neutral images. Results revealed that among risk habits, obesity and unhealthy dieting practices were accompanied by less enjoyment of sweets (mostly less pleasure and less food craving). On the contrary, risk habits had no effect on adolescents’ feelings during emotional stimuli, unrelated to food. Thus, the presence of habits linked to obesity and disordered eating was associated with reduced reward value of sweet food cues, supporting the need to approach both disorders from an integrative perspective. Consistent with recent prevention strategies, the results suggest the potential role of food enjoyment as a protective factor.

This study aimed to examine the psychophysiological changes resulting from two mirror exposure treatments that are effective at reducing body dissatisfaction. Thirty-five university women with body dissatisfaction and subclinical eating disorders were randomly assigned to one of two groups: pure (n = 17) or guided exposure (n = 18). The participants received six sessions of treatment. Their thoughts, feelings and avoidance behaviours were assessed after each session. Their subjective discomfort, heart rate and skin conductance were assessed within the sessions. Both groups showed improvement in cognitive-affective and avoidance behaviour symptoms. Nevertheless, the pure exposure group showed faster habituation of subjective discomfort and a greater physiological response than the guided exposure group. These findings suggest that both procedures are effective interventions for improving body image disturbances, although psychophysiological changes observed within session suggest that each technique would act through different processes. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

Background and Objectives: Body exposure improves body image problems in women with eating disorders. However it has almost always been combined with other interventions. Thus, the efficacy of body exposure alone (i.e., pure exposure) remains largely unclear. We aimed to compare the efficacy of two body exposure techniques through psychological and neuroendocrine indices recorded within and between successive sessions.Method: Twenty-nine women with high body dissatisfaction and diagnosis of bulimia nervosa were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: Pure Exposure (n = 14) or Guided Exposure (n = 15). Participants received 6 exposure sessions. After each session, changes in thoughts (positive/negative) and body satisfaction were assessed. Also, we assessed the body discomfort experienced by participants within and. between sessions. Finally, the changes in salivary cortisol levels within and between the initial and final treatment sessions were measured.Results: Both groups showed a reduction in negative thoughts and a progressive increase in positive thoughts throughout the treatment. However, the increase in body satisfaction and the reduction in subjective discomfort within the sessions were greater in the pure exposure group. The cortisol levels during the initial and final treatmept sessions decreased in both groups.Limitations: Methodological limitations are reported.Conclusions: These results suggest that pure and guided exposures are effective interventions for improving thoughts and neuroendocrine responses, although pure exposure increased more body satisfaction feelings in bulimic women. Subjective discomfort also showed different patterns of change within and along sessions for each treatment. Reasons for these results are discussed. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotional effects of upward body comparisons are suggested to occur automatically. A startle reflex paradigm was used to objectively examine the emotions elicited by viewing a picture of one's own body adopting a model pose or a neutral pose, in 30 women with high body dissatisfaction (HBD) and 33 women with low body dissatisfaction (LBD). In-task emotional responses in perceived valence, arousal and control were assessed. Additionally, post-task positive/negative and body-related beauty feelings were recorded. The results revealed that HBD women, compared with LBD women, showed (i) less pleasure, higher activation and less control whilst viewing their own bodies and (ii) less pleasure, more negative/ugliness feelings and an increased startle response when viewing themselves posing as models. The data showed that their own bodies provoked an immediate negative emotional state in HBD women. However, greater aversive psychophysiological mechanisms were automatically activated only when these women posed as models, suggesting that they made upward own-body comparisons.