People who are extremely dissatisfied with their bodies are the ones least likely to have success with programs of dieting and exercise, according to new research.
Writing in a current Annals of Behavioral Medicine (Vol. 20, No. 1), Michaela Kiernan, PhD, and colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine identify two types of people who face extreme difficulty losing weight, even when they combine exercise and dieting:
- Overweight women and men who are extremely dissatisfied with their bodies, even if not significantly heavier than other participants in the study.
- Individuals with a history of losing and regaining weight.
Obesity is associated with several chronic disease risk factors. Based on recently issues criteria, more than 55 percent of U.S. adults are overweight. The Stanford group assigned 177 men and women who were mildly to moderately overweight to one of two weight-loss programs. One group dieted; the other took up the same diet but also began an exercise regimen.
A year later, nearly half (49 percent) of the diet-and-exercise group had successfully lost the targeted amount of roughly 10-15 pounds for a 5-foot-9 man or 5-foot-4 woman, but only 26 percent of the diet-only group met that goal.
A variable strongly linked with success among the diet-and-exercise group was participants' initial satisfaction with their bodies. Members who started out more satisfied were more than twice as likely to succeed as their deeply dissatisfied counterparts (55 percent compared to 26 percent).
Researchers speculate that those extremely dissatisfied with their bodies may be uncomfortable exercising in a class with others and end up not going to class regularly. For them, exercising at home or with a friend may be more appealing.
Those without a history of repeated weight changes were also likelier than those with such a history to meet the weight-loss target (63 percent compared to 35 percent).
So many people failed within the diet-only program that no successful subgroups were identified, emphasizing the importance of changing both diet and exercise habits.
Dr. Kiernan and her colleagues note, "Widely popular commercial weight-loss programs...may wish to continue to take pains to help their participants initiate safe, reasonable physical activity regimens in order to successfully achieve recommended 'healthier weight goals.'"
The research was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute on Aging.
Annals of Behavioral Medicine is the official peer-reviewed publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. For information about the journal, contact editor Arthur Stone, PhD, 516-632-8833.
Posted by the Center for the Advancement of Health http://www.cfah.org.
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Annals of Behavioral Medicine