Perceptions, motives, and psychological flexibility associated with weight management

Introduction: Overweight people are often able to lose weight with the help of professionals, but majority (about 85 %) of the weight losers fail to maintain behavioral changes that would lead to favorable results in the long term [1‐3]. Studies suggest that obesity treatment failures may reflect motivational and contextual impediments to weight loss, rather than limitations of the behavior change strategies per se [4, 5]. A stronger emphasis on motivational factors within a behavioral weight maintenance program offers promise for improving long-term outcomes. The motivation-focused approach has been shown to be as effective as the successful standard skill-based method in weight maintenance [5]. Specific attention on eliciting and supporting personally relevant motivation for weight management can be used to promote internalization and the sustaining of autonomous self-regulation [5]. Social situations can have an impact on compliance with dietary advice [6]. Interestingly, overweight cardiac patients more often reported cognitions and expectations as reasons for their difficulties to eat healthily in social situations than patients with normal weight [6]. This suggests that it would be useful to study weight losers’ cognitions in order to better understand success and failures in the maintenance of weight loss. [Continues, please see the article.]