The illusion of hunger and learning of overeating as a passive coping.

"Hunger" is a concept whose operational definition is ambiguously defined in humans. A scale was built, using as items some typical target behaviors of TCC, the SBEB (Scale of Borderline Eating Behaviors). Administered to a first sample of 140 obese outpatients and to a second sample of 400 university students, total SBEB scores were significantly and linearly associated with BMI in both samples, and the subscore of state-dependent eating was also higher in the more severe obese. Some support is given to the hypothesis that a mislabeled sense of "hunger" may underlie the development of overweight or hamper attempts at weight reduction