1. Study found an association between restrained eating and higher levels of depressive symptoms, especially in men and individuals with elevated body mass index.
2. Men with higher nutritional requirements may be more susceptible to deficiencies on a restrictive diet, exacerbating somatic symptoms of depression.
3. Future longitudinal studies are needed to explore these associations in diverse populations and examine the impact of realistic calorie-restricted diets on depressive symptoms.
4. Limitations include reliance on self-reported data and a demographically skewed sample. 5.
5. Participants were recruited through a UK university and a crowdsourced online platform, with 93.7% being White and based in the UK.
6. The study's cross-sectional design limited causal inference.

Source: BMJ Journals