A descriptive study of past experiences with weight-loss treatment

Overweight and obesity affect more than 60% of the adult population in the United States. Most adults who are overweight have a history of previous weight-loss treatment. Exploring individuals' past experiences with weight-loss treatment may allow improvements to the current approach to treatment.

To examine individuals' prior experiences with weight-loss treatment, their treatment preferences, and what they found to be most and least satisfying.

Cross-sectional descriptive study.

Individuals (N=155) who had registered for a weight-loss study wait list and met standard criteria for a weight-loss program (aged 18 to 55 years and body mass index between 25 and 42).

Questionnaire packets were mailed to participants.

Descriptive analyses of the participants' past history with weight-loss treatment, treatment preference, self-efficacy, therapeutic efficacy, barriers to adherence to weight-loss treatment, barriers to healthy eating, and experiences associated with following a low-fat diet.

One hundred ten participants (71%) returned completed questionnaire packets. The sample (82% white, 84% female, aged 42.6+/-8.5 years, and body mass index 33.5+/-5.3) was representative of those who seek weight-loss treatment in research settings. Participants were, on average, aged 21.1+/-8.9 years when they first tried a weight-loss program; 96.3% had tried to lose weight since that first time. The two most frequently tried programs were doing it on their own (93.5%) and commercial programs (70.8%). Barriers included having trouble controlling what I eat when hungry (71.3%), difficulty motivating myself to eat appropriately (66.2%), and using food as a reward (59.3%). Preferred weight-loss regimens were doing it on their own (30.6%) and a research program (22.4%).

Participants were not seeking their preferred treatment. These data can be used to improve weight-loss programs by tailoring programs to meet the needs and preferences of participants.