Predicting long-term weight loss maintenance in previously overweight women: a signal detection approach

Examine psychological and behavioral predictors of 3-year weight loss maintenance in women.

Participants were 154 women in a 1-year randomized controlled trial on weight management with a 2-year follow-up. Signal detection analyses identified behavioral and psychological variables that best predicted 5% and 10% weight loss at 3 years.

Women with better body image were more likely to have lost ≥5% weight at 3 years (P < 0.001). Exercise intrinsic motivation had a partial compensatory effect, in that women with poor body image but higher motivation were more likely to maintain weight loss than women with poor body image and lower motivation (P < 0.001). Women with high exercise autonomous motivation were three times more likely to have lost ≥10% weight than were those with lower autonomous motivation (P < 0.001). Among women with lower autonomous motivation, perceiving fewer exercise barriers was somewhat compensatory: these women were more likely to maintain weight loss than women with lower autonomy but more perceived barriers (P < 0.01).

In overweight women, improving body image and increasing autonomous and intrinsic motivation for exercise likely promotes clinically significant long-term weight loss maintenance. Decreasing perceived exercise barriers is another promising intervention target.