A Conceptual Model of Long-Term Weight Loss Maintenance: The Importance of Cognitive, Empirical and Computational Approaches

Darren Haywood, Blake J. Lawrence, Frank D. Baughman and Barbara A. Mullan
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Darren Haywood: School of Population Health, Curtin University, GPO BOX U1987, Perth 6845, Australia
Blake J. Lawrence: School of Population Health, Curtin University, GPO BOX U1987, Perth 6845, Australia
Frank D. Baughman: School of Population Health, Curtin University, GPO BOX U1987, Perth 6845, Australia
Barbara A. Mullan: School of Population Health, Curtin University, GPO BOX U1987, Perth 6845, Australia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: Living with obesity is related to numerous negative health outcomes, including various cancers, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Although much is known about the factors associated with obesity, and a range of weight loss interventions have been established, changing health-related behaviours to positively affect obesity outcomes has proven difficult. In this paper, we first draw together major factors that have emerged within the literature on weight loss to describe a new conceptual framework of long-term weight loss maintenance. Key to this framework is the suggestion that increased positive social support influences a reduction in psychosocial stress, and that this has the effect of promoting better executive functioning which in turn facilitates the development of healthy habits and the breaking of unhealthy habits, leading to improved ongoing maintenance of weight loss. We then outline how the use of computational approaches are an essential next step, to more rigorously test conceptual frameworks, such as the one we propose, and the benefits that a mixture of conceptual, empirical and computational approaches offer to the field of health psychology.

Keywords: weight loss; maintenance; executive function; EF; social support; habit; stress; computational modeling; obesity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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