Interpretative repertoires of long-term weight management: negotiating accountability and explaining success

Public health messages encourage maintaining a stable weight and are influential in shaping normative weight management discourses. We studied how individuals with different weight maintenance histories constructed relations to these discourses in their sense-making on weight management.

Our study used critical discursive psychology (CDP) as a theoretical and methodological framework for examining the accounts of 20 lifelong weight maintainers and 20 weight-loss maintainers (altogether 17 men and 23 women, aged 51-74).

We identified three interpretative repertoires the participants used for making sense of weight management. The lifelong weight maintainers and weight-loss maintainers differed in their ways of using three repertoires. The "everyday challenges" repertoire that emphasized external obstacles was most emphatic in weight-loss maintainers' accounts of unsuccessful weight management, and the "following instructions" repertoire that highlighted control and disciplined behavior in their accounts of success. The "lifestyle and personalized routines" repertoire that stressed customized needs and routinization of practices was most prominent in lifelong weight maintainers' accounts of successful weight management.

Our findings stress the importance of alternative ways of talking about and supporting weight management to prevent stigmatization. In conclusion, we suggest employing morally neutral language by focusing on lifestyle and wellbeing instead of weight.