Latest News
FSU researcher’s new findings connect biological and behavioral consequences of weight loss to binge eating
By: Jenny Ralph | Published: July 23, 2025
A groundbreaking study from Florida State University has uncovered the biological and behavioral consequences of weight loss that underlie binge eating in women with bulimia nervosa and related syndromes.
​
Led by Pamela Keel, Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor in FSU’s Department of Psychology, the study reveals the roles of the hormones leptin and GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1) for understanding excessive food intake in binge eating among women.
Episode 186: The Biology of Binge Eating: New Research on How Weight Suppression Impacts Leptin and GLP-1 with Pamela Keel, PhD
TikTok and disordered eating: Delineating temporal associations and effects of a ban
By: Samantha R. Strickland, Alejandra Medina Fernandez, Pamela K. Keel | Published: August 18, 2025
Samantha Strickland, an alumna of the Eating Behaviors Research Clinic, researched TikTok "What I Eat in a Day" videos to determine if greater disordered eating prospectively predicted increased engagement with content promoting restrictive eating on TikTok. While conducting this undergraduate Honors Thesis, our institution implemented a TikTok ban, which poised a unique quasi-experimental design that allowed us to explore the impact of the ban on engagement with restrictive eating content. Higher disordered eating pathology reported at baseline was found to predict greater engagement with restrictive eating content on TikTok at follow-up, but social media engagement did not predict disordered eating. Interestingly, the university ban on TikTok had no impact on engagement with restrictive eating content.
The idea of this project came to her in early 2022 as a sophomore in college, when she noticed how #WIED videos were completely taking over the social media feed of young women around her. Many of these videos normalized restrictive eating, and most were made to appear as inspirational content. She approached Dr. Pamela Keel to see if she would be interested in being her mentor for an undergraduate honors thesis. Lucky for her, she said yes!
Samantha is deeply grateful to Dr. Pamela Keel for being her mentor and supervisor on this project. Being able to work under an expert and leading voice in the field so early in her research career greatly shaped her competency and confidence as a scholar. Having the opportunity to create an independent research project was one of the pivotal moments that prepped her for graduate school. She is extremely grateful for her guidance and mentorship on this project, her contributions to the creation of our TikTok questionnaire, and the invaluable time taken to work with her while being one of the most prominent researchers in the eating disorders field.
​
Special thank you to Alejandra Medina Fernandez for her stellar contributions as a co-author. Her work and editing on his paper were very valuable and deeply appreciated.