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Satisfaction with Weight Loss: Examining the Longitudinal Covariation Between People’s Weight-loss-related Outcomes and Experiences and Their Satisfaction

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

Recent research has shown that satisfaction with weight loss is predictive of weight loss maintenance, yet empirical evidence for how people derive satisfaction with weight loss is quite limited.

Purpose

To determine whether satisfaction with weight change systematically covaries with various weight-loss-related outcomes and experiences (e.g., improvement in physical appearance, amount of frustration experienced), which outcomes and experiences are the strongest longitudinal correlates of satisfaction, and whether the longitudinal covariations are due to between-person differences and/or within-person changes.

Methods

We analyzed longitudinal data obtained from overweight or obese individuals enrolled in a weight-loss program who were followed for 18 months using random coefficient models.

Results

In univariate analyses controlling for the amount of weight people lost, nine of ten outcomes and experiences independently covaried with people’s satisfaction, and the models accounted for 21–38% of the within-person variance in satisfaction. In a multivariate analysis, four outcomes and experiences remained as significant longitudinal covariates of satisfaction. In both sets of analyses, there were more significant relations due to within-person changes than to between-person differences.

Conclusions

The results suggest that people’s weight loss satisfaction systematically covaries with ongoing changes in weight-loss-related outcomes and experiences. The findings help elucidate how people derive satisfaction with weight loss.

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Notes

  1. To be sure, the robustness of the estimates produced by these models assumes that the missing data meet the assumption of missing at random (MAR [23]). The most likely violation of the MAR assumption in these data is if people who were less successful losing weight stopped completing questionnaires. If weight loss success was a major source of missing data (i.e., only those who were successful continued to complete questionnaires), we would expect (1) the mean level of weight loss percentage to increase over time, (2) the variability in weight loss percentage to decrease over time, and (3) the number of people completing questionnaires to decrease over time. It is also possible that these expected changes eventually asymptote. An inspection of the percent change from baseline weight reported in Table 1 reveals that (1) the mean level of weight loss percentage shows an increasing trend over time, (2) the variability in weight loss percentage actually increases over time, and (3) the number of people providing weight data shows a decreasing trend, but actually increases over the final two time points. Taken together, these data suggest that there was variability in weight loss success among the people who completed questionnaires over time and there were people who returned to completing questionnaires after prior non-response. We think this evidence supports the credibility of the MAR assumption.

  2. We have not reported estimates of between-person variance because the meaning of the between-person variance components (i.e., intercepts and rates of change) changes between different models that includes time-varying predictors (as the models reported here do). Thus, there is no meaningful way to interpret changes in the between-person variance components from model to model (see [22]).

  3. All the coefficients reported in the paper should be interpreted as the association between the respective variable and satisfaction at the average levels of all the covariates.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750442, Dallas, TX, 75275-0442, USA

    Austin S. Baldwin Ph.D.

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Alexander J. Rothman Ph.D.

  3. Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Robert W. Jeffery Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Austin S. Baldwin Ph.D.
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  2. Alexander J. Rothman Ph.D.
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  3. Robert W. Jeffery Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Austin S. Baldwin Ph.D..

Additional information

This research was supported by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Grant R01-NS38441.

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Baldwin, A.S., Rothman, A.J. & Jeffery, R.W. Satisfaction with Weight Loss: Examining the Longitudinal Covariation Between People’s Weight-loss-related Outcomes and Experiences and Their Satisfaction. ann. behav. med. 38, 213–224 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-009-9148-x

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