Predicting Long-Term Weight Loss Maintenance in Previously Overweight Women: A Signal Detection Approach

Objective: Examine psychological and behavioral predictors of 3-year weight loss maintenance in women. Methods: Participants were 154 women in a 1-year randomized controlled trial on weight management with a 2-year follow-up. Signal detection analyses identified behavioral and psychological variables that best predicted 5 % and 10 % weight loss at 3 years. Results: Women with better body image were more likely to have lost 5 % weight at 3 years (P< 0.001). Exercise intrinsic motivation had a partial compensatory effect, in that women with poor body image but higher motivation were more likely to maintain weight loss than women with poor body image and lower motivation (P< 0.001). Women with high exercise autonomous motivation were three times more likely to have lost 10 % weight than were those with lower autonomous motivation (P< 0.001). Among women with lower autonomous motivation, perceiving fewer exercise barriers was somewhat compensatory: these women were more likely to maintain weight loss than women with lower autonomy but more perceived barriers (P<0.01). Conclusions: In overweight women, improving body image and increasing autonomous and intrinsic motivation for exercise likely promotes clinically significant long-term weight loss maintenance. Decreas-ing perceived exercise barriers is another promising intervention target. Obesity (2015) 00, 00–00. doi:10.1002/oby.2108