Understanding the selection of support partners in a behavioral weight loss program.

Objective: Engaging a support partner during behavioral weight loss (BWL) programs can improve outcomes. However, little information is available about those selected as support partners. The study aimed to (1) characterize support partners and qualities of the relationship, (2) assess differences in relationship dynamics across relationship types, and (3) assess differences in supportive relationships by participant gender.

Psychological and behavioral responses to daily weight gain during behavioral weight loss treatment.

Self-weighing is consistently associated with more effective weight control. However, patterns show that participants disengage from their weight control behaviors following weight gain. Women with BMIs in the overweight/obese range (N = 50) enrolled in a long-term behavioral weight loss program completed ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys immediately after their daily weigh-ins.

A Proof-of-Concept Pilot Test of a Behavioral Intervention to Improve Adherence to Dietary Recommendations for Cancer Prevention.

Objectives: Prevention programs that can help adults improve the quality of their diets to reduce cancer risk are needed. This Phase IIa study prospectively tested a mHealth intervention designed to improve adherence to dietary quality guidelines for cancer prevention.

Methods: All participants (N = 62) received nutrition education and a self-regulation skills curriculum, with a primary target of changing grocery shopping behavior.

Overlapping and distinct relationships between hedonic hunger, uncontrolled eating, food craving, and the obesogenic home food environment during and after a 12-month behavioral weight loss program.

Hedonic hunger, reward-driven eating outside of biological need, is a newer construct in eating behavior research. During behavioral weight loss (BWL), greater improvements in hedonic hunger are associated with higher weight loss, but it remains unclear if hedonic hunger predicts weight loss independent of more well-established, similar constructs (uncontrolled eating and food craving). Research also is needed to understand how hedonic hunger interacts with contextual factors (e.

Do monthly coaching calls influence proximal participant adherence in a behavioral weight loss program?

Participants who receive continued coach contact following behavioral weight loss treatment are more successful in maintaining their weight loss long-term. The current study examines whether these contacts have dynamic effects, such that participants are most adherent to the prescribed weight loss behaviors in the days after the call, when motivation and goal salience may be heightened, than they are as time goes on. The current study examined the trajectory of calorie intake, physical activity, weight, and self-monitoring behavior in the fourteen days after a monthly coaching call among participants completing the maintenance phase of a behavioral weight loss trial.

Optimizing an mHealth Intervention to Change Food Purchasing Behaviors for Cancer Prevention: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Dietary intake is a powerful modifiable factor that influences cancer risk; however, most US adults do not adhere to dietary guidelines for cancer prevention. One promising pathway for improving dietary adherence is targeting grocery shopping habits. Interventions might facilitate healthy grocery choices, with a combination of mHealth and traditional methods, by promoting the salience of dietary goals while shopping, enhancing motivation to make dietary changes, and increasing household support for healthy food purchasing.

Subjective experiences of physical activity and forecasting bias during behavioral weight loss.

Introduction: Engagement in physical activity (PA) is a critical component of behavioral weight loss (BWL) treatment. Subjective experiences surrounding PA may shape exercise decisions and need to be further understood within a BWL sample.

Methods: Participants in this study were adults with overweight/obesity enrolled in an 18-month BWL program.

The Role of Physical Activity in Long-term Weight Loss: 36-month Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Physical activity (PA) may promote long-term weight loss, but facilitating high levels of PA in behavioral weight loss programs is challenging.

Purpose: This study reports the 36-month follow-up of a behavioral weight loss trial that tested the efficacy of increasing the emphasis on PA during treatment and using traditional or acceptance-based therapy (ABT) for this purpose. We also examined the extent to which long-term weight loss differed by PA pattern and tested if individual differences in eating behavior moderated this relationship.

The Relation of Grit to Weight Loss Maintenance Outcomes.

Biological, genetic, and environmental factors make weight loss very difficult. Acceptance-based behavioral treatment (ABT) supplements standard behavioral treatments (BT) for obesity by teaching skills to accept the discomfort inherent to weight control behaviors and prioritize long-term, values-based goals. Grit, the ability to persevere in goal pursuit, overlaps conceptually with ABT principles and may predict outcomes in ABT.

Counselor Surveillance of Digital Self-Monitoring Data: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: This pilot study tested counselor access to participants' digital self-monitoring (SM) data as a means of improving long-term lifestyle modification (LM) outcomes.

Methods: After 12 weeks of weight-loss treatment, participants (N = 77) were randomized to LM or LM+SHARE for weeks 13 to 52. All participants received monthly phone calls and weekly text messages from weeks 13 to 52 and were instructed to engage in daily digital SM of weight, eating, and exercise.

Resting-state functional brain connectivity in a predominantly African-American sample of older adults: exploring links among personality traits, cognitive performance, and the default mode network.

The personality traits of neuroticism, openness, and conscientiousness are relevant factors for cognitive aging outcomes. The present study examined how these traits were associated with cognitive abilities and corresponding resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the default mode network (DMN) in an older and predominantly minority sample. A sample of 58 cognitively unimpaired, largely African-American, older adults ( age = 68.