‘Feeling fat’ is associated with specific eating disorder symptom dimensions in young men and women

Purpose ‘Feeling fat,’ the somatic experience of having excess body weight that is not fully explained by true adiposity, correlates with eating pathology in clinical and non-clinical samples. It is unknown whether ‘feeling fat’ more strongly relates to specific eating disorder symptom dimensions that typically characterize anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and/or binge eating disorder. Understanding the significance of ‘feeling fat’s relationship with specific eating disorder symptom dimensions—cognitive restraint, dietary restriction, binge eating, and purging—may suggest its relevance to particular forms of eating pathology and elucidate treatment directions for addressing ‘feeling fat’. Methods Questionnaires were completed by 989 undergraduates (54.3% female). Results Path analyses indicated significant associations between feeling fat and all symptom dimensions; these paths were not moderated by gender. The best fitting model was the model including paths from ‘feeling fat’ to all symptom dimensions; no other model had equivalent fit. Conclusion ‘Feeling fat’ relates to all examined symptoms of eating disorders in a mixed-gender non-clinical population. These results indicate that ‘feeling fat’ is associated with multiple core symptoms of eating pathology, pointing to ‘feeling fat’s significance to eating pathology maintenance across the spectrum of eating pathology. Future research should compare the influence of ‘feeling fat’ on these symptoms in mixed-gender clinical samples. Level of evidence Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.