The Link Between Personal Self-Control and Dieting Intent is not accounted for by Body Dissatisfaction or Dieting Success Perceptions.

Dietary restraint is associated with a number of health risks, especially in young women. Research has shown that dispositional self-control negatively predicts dieting behaviour. However, it is possible that empirical findings regarding this relationship have been confounded by a number of related variables, such as prior dieting success and body dissatisfaction. This study, therefore, aimed to clarify the relationship between self-control and dieting intent by controlling for these pertinent variables. We also investigated how individuals’ self-control might relate to expectations of dieting success, in an online sample of female dieters from the USA and the UK (N = 381, Mage = 26.00 years, SD = 5.20) who completed self-report measures online. Even when controlling for all forms of body dissatisfaction and dieting success perceptions, self-control related to dieting intentions. These findings provide further evidence that self-control is a key variable that predicts dieting intent, regardless of body dissatisfaction and dieting success beliefs.