Relations of hedonic hunger and behavioral change to weight loss among adults in a behavioral weight loss program utilizing meal-replacement products.

McGeown et al. (2013) ran a 15-week weight-loss program for adults.

The program mixed weekly lessons, self-monitoring, and partial meal-replacement shakes.

Everyone was neurotypical and wanted to lose weight.

People lost weight and got better at portion control.

Adults who scored highest on hedonic hunger—craving food for fun—lost the most pounds.

Kovačič et al. (2020) extended the same model to adults with Down syndrome.

They swapped shakes for plain calorie counting and still saw a solid 5 % drop in body weight.

Hove (2007) surveyed adults with ID and found most eat too fast or bolt food; R et al. show that when hedonic hunger is high, structured self-management still works.

Together the papers say: behavioral weight packages work across neurotypes, but you may need to swap textures or prompts for each group.

If your client eats for pleasure, not hunger, lean into self-monitoring and portioned products.

Keep the lessons short and weekly; the high-hedonic group did best with that rhythm.

Try adding visual cues or pacing prompts if you work with IDD adults—T et al. proved the model stretches that far.