Weight change after behavioral treatment as related to home dieting behavior and past dieting history

Despite enormous societal and health-related emphasis on being thin, obesity continues to be among today's most difficult medical and psychological problems. This research was directed at developing knowledge of predictors of weight change, specifically investigating consistent effort at self-monitoring, dieting, measures to control stimulus cues for overeating, exercise, and history of dieting as possible sources of systematic differences among subjects' weight changes during the year after weight control program participation. Results indicate self report of "dieting" is significantly predictive of weight change, and significantly related to self-monitoring, stimulus control, and exercise. The interactive nature of these components may indicate they serve as indices of a general self- regulatory attention that is related to weight loss and maintenance. There is also a significant "treatment" effect for weight loss in the group receiving monthly data collection calls; this finding has implications for strategies to enhance weight loss maintenance.