Dyadic planning as a complementary process to individual planning: Physical activity in daily diaries of persons with pre-obesity or obesity

Individual planning techniques are frequent intervention components in physical activity (PA) promotion, but it remains underdetermined whether interpersonal regulatory efforts such as dyadic planning contribute to their success. This study examines individual planning and dyadic planning as predictors of PA in persons with pre-obesity and obesity who seek outpatient treatment for intended weight loss.

Intensive-longitudinal design with 8-day daily diaries.

One hundred and twenty-seven persons with pre-obesity or obesity who consulted an outpatient endocrinology clinic took part in a correlational 8-day daily diary study. This secondary analysis used multilevel models to explain daily self-reported PA. Planning categories (no planning; dyadic planning only; both individual and dyadic planning; reference category: individual planning only) were created and entered as same-day predictors.

On days with no planning, participants reported being less physically active than on days with individual planning only. While dyadic planning only did not emerge as a unique predictor of daily PA, participants were more physically active than usual when they planned both individually and dyadically as compared to planning individually only. No significant planning-PA associations emerged at the between-person level.

Consistent with scant previous research, we found dyadic planning to be mainly a complementary strategy to individual planning. Day-to-day individual planning together with dyadic planning was linked to more PA than individual planning alone. Our findings indicate that including planning partners in PA promotion for individuals with pre-obesity and obesity intending weight loss may be promising.