AbstractTwenty women and twenty men consumed an experimental lunch that was either high or low in carbohydrate, with or without knowledge of its contents. Measures were taken of the amount and kinds of food they ate as well as self‐reported ratings of their desire and willingness to eat at an ad libitum meal offered to them four hours later. The total intake and the amount of protein eaten in their ad libitum meals were significantly higher when they had an experimental meal rich in carbohydrate, although no similar effects occurred for the amount of carbohydrate eaten in the ad libitum meals. Separate analyses of the women categorized as high or low in restraint and disinhibition, using Stunkard and Messick's (1958) Eating Questionnaire, add new information about the parameters of “counterregulatory eating.” The implications of these findings for an improved understanding of episodic binge eating are disc