‘Feeling fat’ is the somatic experience of being overweight not fully explained by objective body mass. According to the body displacement hypothesis, ‘feeling fat’ occurs when diffuse negative emotions are projected onto the body in lieu of adaptive emotion regulation. Emotion differentiation, the ability to experience and label discrete emotions, is an important skill for adaptively addressing emotion that may reduce ‘feeling fat.’ We hypothesized that individuals with better negative emotion differentiation would be less likely to report ‘feeling fat’ when experiencing high negative emotion. We collected ecological momentary assessment data from 198 undergraduate students (52.24% female). Multilevel modeling revealed that both within-person increases in negative emotions and the tendency to experience greater negative emotion were associated with greater ‘feeling fat.’ Of the specific types of negative emotion, guilt and sadness predicted ‘feeling fat.’ Contrary to hypotheses, individuals with better emotion differentiation were likely to report ‘feeling fat’ after experiencing elevated negative affect. These findings contradict the primary clinical conceptualization of ‘feeling fat,’ suggesting that factors beyond displacement of negative emotions onto the body may be responsible for ‘feeling fat’. Results in a sample with pronounced shape/weight concern may better support the traditional clinical understanding of ‘feeling fat.’

中文翻译：

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负面情绪和情绪分化在本科生“感觉肥胖”体验中的作用：一项生态瞬时评估研究

“感觉肥胖”是超重的躯体体验，不能完全用客观体重来解释。根据身体位移假说，当弥漫性负面情绪代替适应性情绪调节投射到身体上时，就会出现“感觉肥胖”的情况。情绪区分，即体验和标记离散情绪的能力，是自适应处理情绪的一项重要技能，可以减少“感觉肥胖”。我们假设，具有更好的负面情绪区分能力的个体在经历高负面情绪时不太可能报告“感觉肥胖”。我们收集了 198 名本科生（52.24% 为女性）的生态瞬时评估数据。多层次模型显示，人体内负面情绪的增加以及体验更大负面情绪的倾向都与更大的“感觉肥胖”相关。在特定类型的负面情绪中，内疚和悲伤预示着“感觉肥胖”。与假设相反，情绪区分能力较好的人在经历负面情绪升高后可能会报告“感觉肥胖”。这些发现与“感觉肥胖”的主要临床概念相矛盾，表明除了将负面情绪转移到身体上之外的因素可能是导致“感觉肥胖”的原因。具有明显形状/体重问题的样本的结果可能更好地支持“感觉肥胖”的传统临床理解。