Abstract
OBJECTIVE: In the current study, we were interested in developing a typology of eating in patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) based on the size of the eating episode, whether the episode was followed by self-induced vomiting, and the degree of loss of control (LOC) self-reported by participants. METHOD: Twenty-one women with BN, purging type, were evaluated using the Nutritional Data System for Research, the Eating Disorders Examination, and the Matrix. RESULTS: The most common type of episode resembled what might be termed "normal" eating, which involved the consumption of <1,000 kcal with no sense of LOC and no vomiting. There was an increase in severity of self-assessed LOC in objectively large eating episodes with vomiting. Self-reported hunger prior to eating episodes did not seem to be predictive of subsequent behavior. Most people were engaged in other behaviors while eating. DISCUSSION: The results of this study suggest a typology that included primarily four types of eating episodes. The results also suggest that when LOC is assessed on a Likert-scale rather than as a dichotomous variable, there is considerable variability in self-assessed degree of LOC.