FIT – Do Something Different

Abstract

Two 3-month longitudinal studies examined weight loss following a 1-month behavioral intervention (FIT-DSD) focusing on increasing participants’ behavioral flexibility and breaking daily habits. The goal was to break the distal habits hypothesized as playing a role in unhealthy dietary and activity behaviors. The FIT-DSD intervention required participants to do something different each day and to engage in novel weekly activities to expand their behavioral repertoire. These activities were not food- or exercise-related. In Study 1, the FIT-DSD program was compared with a control condition where participants engaged in daily tasks not expected to influence behavioral flexibility. Study 2 used an active or quasicontrol group in which half the participants were also on food diets. Measures in both studies were taken pre-, post-, and post-postintervention. In Study 1, FIT-DSD participants showed greater weight loss that continued post-postintervention. In Study 2, all participants on the FIT-DSD program lost weight, weight loss continued post-postintervention, and participants who were also dieting lost no additional weight. A dose relationship was observed between increases in behavioral flexibility scores and weight loss, and this relationship was mediated by calorie intake. Corresponding reductions in BMI were also present. Increasing behavioral flexibility may be an effective approach for tackling obesity and also provides affective and potential life-skill benefits.

Goals and plans for Big Five personality trait change in young adults

“…The most popular plan activities shown in the table may provide a useful basis for developing personal development sessions with young adults, given that young adults spontaneously see them as ways of effecting personal change, and so will be motivated to engage in them. Openness change is more difficult to plan for than other traits for young adults, which in turn implies that interventions aimed at enhancing Openness, such as the Do Something Different program (Fletcher & Pine, 2012), may be useful in facilitating such desired change, given that young adults have difficulty in formulating their own plans to become higher on O despite having goals to change it.…”

A complex multimodal activity intervention to reduce the risk of dementia in mild cognitive impairment–ThinkingFit: pilot and feasibility study for a randomized controlled trial

“…We therefore developed a complex activity intervention known as the ThinkingFit programme that included design elements to overcome the known barriers to activities and included specific physical, cognitive and social activities associated with reduced dementia risk. To prepare participants for new activities and facilitate substantial lifestyle changes, we included an early pre-phase Do-Something-Different Everyday (DSD) behavioural programme that has been used successfully to alter lifestyle behaviours in diverse populations [29]. Here were report our findings from the pilot and feasibility study of this intervention for a future randomized controlled trial in MCI.…”

Could habits hold the key to weight loss maintenance? A narrative review

“…An individual with more behavioural flexibility has a greater behavioural reservoir and behaves in less habitual ways than a person with less behavioural flexibility. Behavioural flexibility is primarily measured using a psychometric instrument labelled the ‘FIT Profiler’ (Framework for Internal Transformation) , which measures core aspects of a person's thinking processes and the nature and flexibility of their behaviours.…”