The Impact of Restrictive and Non-restrictive Dietary Weight Loss Interventions on Neurobehavioral Factors Related to Body Weight Control: the Gaps and Challenges.

Restrictive diets appear to improve eating behaviors, and the evidence reviewed argues against the notion that they may worsen the severity of binge eating. Moreover, they may lead to short-term changes in brain structure and improvements in cerebrovascular markers which, in turn, could impact eating behaviors. Non-restrictive interventions may have a positive effect on weight management and eating behaviors. However, evidence of their neural effects is scarce. Small sample sizes, short follow-ups, and the absence of control groups are limitations of the studies targeting both interventions. Rigorous long-term randomized studies are needed to examine the neurobehavioral effects of restrictive and non-restrictive approaches.