Love your body

A new study has found 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 women on a year long weight loss program. In the study, 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 where issues such as exercise, emotional eating, improving body image and the recognition of personal barriers were discussed. It was seen 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 more weight. “body image problems are very common among obese people, often leading to comfort eating and rigid eating patterns that are obstacles to losing weight,” said dr teixeira, who led the research. “our results showed a strong correlation between improvements in body image, especially in reducing anxiety about other peoples’ opinions, and positive changes in eating behaviour.