RESEARCH_FILE
Counterregulatory Eating
Counterregulatory eating describes the paradox whereby restrained dieters eat more — not less — following a high-calorie preload, reversing the direction that caloric self-regulation would predict. First demonstrated by Herman and Mack in 1975, it arises because the preload crosses the psychological threshold of a dietary rule. Once that threshold is crossed, the motivation to regulate caloric intake collapses and is replaced by the what-the-hell reclassification, producing increased eating that is inversely related to biological hunger.
How it sounds in your head
The inner script: 'I already had the slice of cake — I might as well have the rest since dinner's ruined anyway.' The research distinguishes the biological signal (still full from the cake) from the cognitive override (the rule is broken, so eating is now unconstrained). Counterregulatory eating is the behavioral signature of that override.