Counterregulatory eating is the psychological tendency for a person to eat more after having recently eaten.[1] It is a behavior opposite to regulatory eating, which is the normal pattern of eating less if one has already eaten. It is more common among dieters, for whom a large "pre-load" (the food eaten first) is presumed to sabotage motivation for restricted eating.
It was coined the "what-the-hell" effect by dieting researcher Janet Polivy in 2010.[2] [3] She describes this effect as the type of thinking which says, "What the hell, my diet's already broken, so I might as well eat everything in sight."[4] It has been observed that reducing the guilt of overeating through self-forgiveness can mitigate counterregulatory eating.[5]
. Kelly McGonigal. The Willpower Instinct. 2012. Penguin Group. New York, NY. 978-1-58333-438-6. 144. registration.