Early Onset of Obesity and Treatment Outcome in a Behavioral Weight Loss Program

The present study examines whether self-efficacy, binge/emotional eating, body image, self-esteem, self-reported difficulties and outcome expectancies mediate the relationship between onset of obesity and percent of body weightlost/change. Forty-four sedentary, obese adults participated in a six-month behavioral weight loss program (BLWP) and six-month maintenance phase. At baseline, early onset of obesity was associated with increased BMI levels. However, early onset was not associated with percent weight lost/change during the treatment or maintenance phases and was not consistently associated with any other psychological or physiological outcome. Findings and methodological limitations are discussed.