Inhibitory Control Training for Excess Weight: Behavioural, Cognitive and Anthropometric Changes

People with excess weight (EW) are characterized by high impulsivity, high levels of craving for high-calorie foods, deficits in inhibitory control, and maladaptive decision-making. The proposed intervention seeks to target these issues. Thus, the present study aims to determine the effectiveness of combining inhibitory control training with usual treatment (diet and physical exercise) in treating people with EW to produce cognitive, behavioral and anthropometric changes. Participants will be randomly allocated to one of two groups: 1) the experimental group that would receive active inhibitory control training and (2) the active control group that will receive placebo inhibitory control training. Both groups will receive individualized diet and physical exercise guidelines. Training requires to inhibit responding to certain foods presented during computerized tasks. Using a food Go/No-Go paradigm, individuals are asked to press a button when a Go cue is presented next to an image and to refrain from pressing a button when a No-Go cue (e.g., a bold frame) is presented. In the experimental group, pictures of healthy and unhealthy foods are always paired with the Go and the No-Go signal, respectively whereas in the control group healthy and unhealthy foods are paired 50% of the time with the Go and 50% with the No-Go signal. It is hypothesized that the experimental intervention would be effective improving (i) Body Mass Index (BMI), (ii) food craving, (iii) anthropometric measures (waist circumference and waist-to-hip and waist-to-height ratios), (iv) eating and physical exercise behaviors (decreased caloric intake and increased frequency and time of physical activity), (v) emotional symptoms and emotional eating (depression, anxiety, emotional regulation, emotional eating, reward-related eating, non-homeostatic eating), and (vi) cognitive abilities (motor and cognitive inhibition, delay of gratification, impulsivity, working memory, cognitive flexibility and decision making).