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# 'Love your body' to lose weight (PR)
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/love_your_body_to_lose_weight_0718110722/
- Published: 2011-07-18T08:21:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:17:26.000Z
- Description: In a year-long trial, overweight and obese women who attended 30 weekly sessions on body image, emotional eating and personal barriers lost about 7 percent of their starting weight, against under 2 percent for women given general health information.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Lifestyle, Health News, #vivvo-import

Contact: Dr. Hilary Glover  
[hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com](mailto:hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com)  
44-203-192-2370  
[BioMed Central](http://www.biomedcentral.com/?ref=foodconsumer.org)   

# 'Love your body' to lose weight

Almost a quarter of men and women in England and over a third of adults in America are obese. Obesity increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease and can significantly shorten a person's life expectancy. New research published by BioMed Central's open access journal *International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity* shows that improving body image can enhance the effectiveness of weight loss programs based on diet and exercise.

Researchers from the Technical University of Lisbon and Bangor University enrolled overweight and obese women on a year-long weight loss program. Half the women were given general health information about good nutrition, stress management, and the importance of looking after yourself. The other half attended 30 weekly group sessions (the intervention plan) where issues such as exercise, emotional eating, improving body image and the recognition of, and how to overcome, personal barriers to weight loss and lapses from the diet were discussed.

On the behavioral intervention plan women found that the way they thought about their body improved and that concerns about body shape and size were reduced. Compared to the control group they were better able to self-regulate their eating and they lost much more weight, losing on average 7% of their starting weight compared to less than 2% for the control group.

Dr Teixeira from Technical University of Lisbon, who led the research, said, "Body image problems are very common amongst overweight and obese people, often leading to comfort eating and more rigid eating patterns, and are obstacles to losing weight. Our results showed a strong correlation between improvements in body image, especially in reducing anxiety about other peoples' opinions, and positive changes in eating behavior. From this we believe that learning to relate to your body in healthier ways is an important aspect of maintaining weight loss and should be addressed in every weight control program."

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**Notes to Editors**

1\. Body image change and improved eating self-regulation in a weight management intervention in women   
Eliana V Carraca, Marlene N Silva, David Markland, Paulo N Vieira, Claudia S Minderico, Luis B Sardinha and Pedro J Teixeira   
*International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity* (in press)

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

Article citation and URL available on request at [press@biomedcentral.com](mailto:press@biomedcentral.com) on the day of publication.

2\. *International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity* (IJBNPA) is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal devoted to furthering the understanding of the behavioral aspects of diet and physical activity.

3\. BioMed Central ([http://www.biomedcentral.com/](http://www.biomedcentral.com/?ref=foodconsumer.org)) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.