Dietary versus healthy life style interventions in the treatment of obesity: Resultant changes and the prediction of outcome

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Abstract
This study compares both weight and fat loss in overweight women exposed to two styles of programme and two levels of intervention. Body image and other psychological changes were examined including an eating disorder scale, motivational variables and depressive symptoms. The results showed that weight loss is influenced by different styles of intervention but this does not apply to the fat measurements. During the overall treatment period certain psychological changes were observed but no significant differences were exhibited between the treatment groups. The significant change in the “perfectionist” scores on the SCANS test suggests that dieters may reset their weight reduction targets inappropriately, resulting in eventual failure. A number of correlations were significant when these measures were compared with weight loss after the treatment. It appeared that motivational differences are only important in determining involvement not outcome. Psychological differences appear not to precede weight loss programmes but rather tend to follow involvement in them. It was concluded that the psychological benefit of losing weight is best achieved by a high intervention strategy which includes an element of positive life style education.