FReedom From Emotional Eating

Background: The current study was a preliminary investigation of Live FREE, a pilot study of a treatment that included a combination of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Behavioral Weight Loss (BWL) techniques for overweight/obese adult emotional eaters. Live FREE was based on the premise that impaired emotion regulation skills promote emotional eating behavior and lead to weight gain. Consistent with the ORBIT model (Czajkowski et al., 2015) of behavioral treatment development, the primary study aim was to refine the treatment protocol. Methods: Adults with overweight/obesity who self-identified as emotional eaters were enrolled in Live FREE. Participants completed assessments at baseline, post-treatment, and at a 6-month follow-up. The intervention delivered 10-weeks of emotion regulation skills training followed by 6-weeks of BWL treatment in a group-based format. Groups were co-led by a licensed clinical psychologist and a doctoral student. Feasibility and acceptability will be examined by calculating rate of enrollment into the study and session attendance. ANOVA will be used to examine changes in primary and secondary outcome variables (weight, emotional eating) over time. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) will be calculated to examine the magnitude of change observed in these outcomes using standard interpretation guidelines ( d=0.2 be considered a 'small' effect size, 0.5 represents a 'medium' effect size and 0.8 a 'large' effect size).