Relevant Psychological Factors in Weight Management. How to Think and Behave to Lose Weight and Maintain it for Good

To improve the long-term results of psychological treatments, it is important to know why some people constantly have a healthy weight and others face difficulties in losing weight or maintaining it. This study aimed to identify psychological factors associated with maintaining or regaining weight loss and determine the psychological characteristics of individuals with different BMI levels. 282 adult participants responded to questionnaires measuring eating behaviors, general and specific irrational beliefs, and self-efficacy. We used MANOVA analysis to identify the differences between the categories of participants. Our results showed that there are differences between the regainers and maintainers VS those with healthy stable weight in terms of self-efficacy (F (2, 84) = 7.17, p = .001), irrationality (F (2, 84) = 8.15, p < .001), and eating behaviors (F (2, 84) = 7.95, p < .001). Furthermore, people with healthy weight had more self-efficacy about their eating behaviors (F (2,273) = 6.49, p = .002), and more cognitive restraint (F (2, 273) = 3.58, p = .029), lower levels of specific irrational beliefs (F (2, 273) = 10.17, p < .000) and emotional eating (F (2, 273) = 20.24, p < .000) than participants with obesity or overweight. Some psychological factors are relevant for weight loss and explain why some people with overweight or obesity find it difficult to lose weight and maintain it.