Emphasising Personal Investment Effects Weight Loss and Hedonic Thoughts about Food after Obesity Surgery

Abstract

Obesity surgery is the most effective treatment method for the severely obese but does not work for everyone. Indications are that weight-loss success may be related to individuals' sense of investment in surgery, with failure linked to higher automatic hedonic motivations to consume food and greater susceptibility to food in the environment. A pilot study using an independent experimental design recruited bariatric surgery patients (n = 91) via a UK obesity-surgery charity website who were randomly allocated to either the intervention or the control condition. The intervention involved raising the salience of the personal investment made in having weight-loss surgery in an attempt to reduce automatic hedonic thoughts about food and aid weight loss. Data was collected initially with subsequent weight loss measured at 3 months of follow-up. Following the intervention, participants reported significantly reduced hedonic thoughts, increased liking for low-fat foods, reduced liking of high-fat food, and higher self-efficacy for achieving sustained weight loss than controls. By 3 months, this was translated into significant differences in mean weight losses of 6.77 kg for the intervention group and 0.91 kg for control participants. To conclude, a quick simple cost-effective intervention encouraging participants to focus on investment helped weight loss and changed hedonic thoughts about food in bariatric patients.

The role of hedonics in the Human Affectome

“…For example, research has pointed out that hedonic pleasure increases when related to conscious self-regulation in terms of self-licensing compared to impulsive hedonic consumption (de Witt Huberts et al, 2014). Similarly, self-regulation with respect to weight can be related to pleasure: Hedonic perception of food decreased in people after obesity surgery the more they perceived that they themselves invested in the procedure (Alfonsson et al, 2017; Husted and Ogden, 2014). Further, self-interest can result in hedonic feelings, but only if such self-interest is externally imposed (Berman and Small, 2012).…”

Evaluation of an online “teachable moment” dietary intervention

“…Participants in the intervention condition of Husted and Ogden's (2014) study, who received a weight loss intervention embedded within a questionnaire, lost significantly more weight at three-month follow-up than participants in the control condition. The severity of the weight problem varied considerably between the two studies.…”

Alterações comportamentais após cirurgia bariátrica: Uma revisão sistemática de literatura

“…A cirurgia bariátrica é indicada para pacientes com IMC maior que 40 kg.m 2 ou IMC maior ou igual a 35 kg.m 2 associado com comorbidades (Zilberstein, Santo, & Carvalho, 2019). É importante salientar que o IMC maior ou igual a 30 kg.m 2 é considerado um fator de risco para o desenvolvimento do Diabetes Mellitus do tipo 2 (DM2), Hipertensão Arterial Sistêmica (HAS), dislipidemia e apneia obstrutiva do sono (AOS), câncer, entre outras doenças, aumentando a probabilidade de morte prematura (Husted & Ogden, 2014).…”