Behaviour therapy for obesity: The role of clinicians in the reduction of overweight

Behaviour therapists are often required to help those who are unhealthily overweight to reduce. Unfortunately, these interventions are often ineffective in the long-term. Many clients never achieve reduced weight. Often, those who do reduce weight are unsuccessful in keeping the weight off. A review of the relevant literature suggests that most therapeutic approaches do not enable people to change their lifestyles in the ways likely to be necessary for permanent reduction of weight to a healthy level. Clinical support for weight reduction would be more effective if it were more culturally realistic and therapeutically sensitive in empowering clients to make informed choices for themselves among sustainable habits of eating and exercise that contribute to negative energy balance. Approaches which encourage client self-efficacy and self-assertion are likely to be more effective in facilitating lasting change.