**Incremental theories of weight predict lower consumption of high-calorie, high-fat foods** **Joyce Ehrlinger, Jeni L. Burnette, Jina Park, Mycah L. Harrold, Kasey Orvidas** - Cleaned data files with composite variables are shared for open use. - Please contact the first author (Joyce Ehrlinger) at ehrlinger [at] wsu.edu to obtain raw data for replication of analyses. Some rights reserved with respect to raw data for any purpose other than replication of analyses. **Highlights** • Believing your weight is changeable leads to higher self-efficacy and healthier eating • A belief that weight is changeable leads to lower consumption of high-calorie foods. • To maintain healthy eating, it helps to think of weight as malleable. • Implicit theories of weight encourage healthy eating by increasing self-efficacy. **Abstract** Overconsumption of high-calorie, high-fat foods contributes to life-threatening diseases. Three studies examined whether individuals’ theories of weight as a malleable quality (incremental theories) contribute to healthier eating behaviors than do beliefs that weight is relatively fixed (entity theories). We found that participants with incremental theories of weight consumed fewer calories, specifically from high-calorie, high-fat foods, in a lab-based taste test than did those with more entity theories of weight. This pattern held correlationally, with naturally-occurring theories of weight (Study 1), and when we experimentally manipulated participants’ theories of weight through videos that portrayed weight as either changeable or as fixed (Study 2). A third study provided evidence that differences in nutrition self-efficacy mediate the relationship between theories of weight and eating behavior (Study 3). One way to encourage healthy eating might be to develop interventions that encourage more incremental views of weight. **Keywords:** incremental theory, entity theory, implicit theories of weight, eating behavior, nutrition self-efficacy, growth mindset, self-regulation