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In their own words: Topic analysis of the motivations and strategies of over 6,000 long‐term weight‐loss maintainers

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify major themes of a large cohort experiencing long‐term weight‐loss maintenance who answered open‐ended questions about weight‐loss triggers, current motivations, strategies, and experiences. METHODS: Machine learning and topic modeling were used to analyze resp...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Phelan, Suzanne, Roake, James, Alarcon, Noemi, Ng, Sarah M., Glanz, Hunter, Cardel, Michelle I., Foster, Gary D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9305441/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35137557
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oby.23372
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author Phelan, Suzanne
Roake, James
Alarcon, Noemi
Ng, Sarah M.
Glanz, Hunter
Cardel, Michelle I.
Foster, Gary D.
author_facet Phelan, Suzanne
Roake, James
Alarcon, Noemi
Ng, Sarah M.
Glanz, Hunter
Cardel, Michelle I.
Foster, Gary D.
author_sort Phelan, Suzanne
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify major themes of a large cohort experiencing long‐term weight‐loss maintenance who answered open‐ended questions about weight‐loss triggers, current motivations, strategies, and experiences. METHODS: Machine learning and topic modeling were used to analyze responses to six open‐ended questions among 6,139 WW International, Inc., (formerly Weight Watchers) members with weight‐loss maintenance; inclusion criteria included ≥9.1‐kg loss with weight‐loss maintenance for ≥1 year. RESULTS: Participants (mean age = 53.6 years; 94.3% White; mean BMI = 27.8 kg/m(2)) had lost 24.5 kg and maintained the loss for 3.4 years. Descriptions of factors triggering weight loss coalesced into five topics: medical status, appearance, mobility, social prompts, and change needed. Factors currently motivating weight‐loss maintenance yielded two topics: looking back at experiences at higher weight and health/appearance concerns. Advice for others to succeed in weight‐loss maintenance coalesced on two recommendations: perseverance in the face of setbacks and consistency in tracking. Rewards for weight management included improved confidence, pain, mobility, fitness, body image, medical status, and affect. Two thematic negative consequences were clothing costs and sagging skin. CONCLUSIONS: Future weight‐maintenance research should include more diverse populations and investigate weight‐loss maintenance as a journey with highs and lows, perseverance in the face of setbacks, sustained tracking, and making changes in medical status more salient during the weight‐maintenance journey.
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spelling pubmed-93054412022-07-28 In their own words: Topic analysis of the motivations and strategies of over 6,000 long‐term weight‐loss maintainers Phelan, Suzanne Roake, James Alarcon, Noemi Ng, Sarah M. Glanz, Hunter Cardel, Michelle I. Foster, Gary D. Obesity (Silver Spring) ORIGINAL ARTICLES OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify major themes of a large cohort experiencing long‐term weight‐loss maintenance who answered open‐ended questions about weight‐loss triggers, current motivations, strategies, and experiences. METHODS: Machine learning and topic modeling were used to analyze responses to six open‐ended questions among 6,139 WW International, Inc., (formerly Weight Watchers) members with weight‐loss maintenance; inclusion criteria included ≥9.1‐kg loss with weight‐loss maintenance for ≥1 year. RESULTS: Participants (mean age = 53.6 years; 94.3% White; mean BMI = 27.8 kg/m(2)) had lost 24.5 kg and maintained the loss for 3.4 years. Descriptions of factors triggering weight loss coalesced into five topics: medical status, appearance, mobility, social prompts, and change needed. Factors currently motivating weight‐loss maintenance yielded two topics: looking back at experiences at higher weight and health/appearance concerns. Advice for others to succeed in weight‐loss maintenance coalesced on two recommendations: perseverance in the face of setbacks and consistency in tracking. Rewards for weight management included improved confidence, pain, mobility, fitness, body image, medical status, and affect. Two thematic negative consequences were clothing costs and sagging skin. CONCLUSIONS: Future weight‐maintenance research should include more diverse populations and investigate weight‐loss maintenance as a journey with highs and lows, perseverance in the face of setbacks, sustained tracking, and making changes in medical status more salient during the weight‐maintenance journey. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-02-09 2022-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9305441/ /pubmed/35137557 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oby.23372 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Obesity published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Obesity Society (TOS). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Phelan, Suzanne
Roake, James
Alarcon, Noemi
Ng, Sarah M.
Glanz, Hunter
Cardel, Michelle I.
Foster, Gary D.
In their own words: Topic analysis of the motivations and strategies of over 6,000 long‐term weight‐loss maintainers
title In their own words: Topic analysis of the motivations and strategies of over 6,000 long‐term weight‐loss maintainers
title_full In their own words: Topic analysis of the motivations and strategies of over 6,000 long‐term weight‐loss maintainers
title_fullStr In their own words: Topic analysis of the motivations and strategies of over 6,000 long‐term weight‐loss maintainers
title_full_unstemmed In their own words: Topic analysis of the motivations and strategies of over 6,000 long‐term weight‐loss maintainers
title_short In their own words: Topic analysis of the motivations and strategies of over 6,000 long‐term weight‐loss maintainers
title_sort in their own words: topic analysis of the motivations and strategies of over 6,000 long‐term weight‐loss maintainers
topic ORIGINAL ARTICLES
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9305441/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35137557
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oby.23372
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