Practical Components of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Weight Loss in Women: Directed Qualitative Content Analysis

Introduction: In recent decades, cognitive-behavioral programs for reducing weight have had remarkable success. Generally, in these programs, many components are involved which lengthen the duration of therapy, and also it is not clear which one of the components is more practical for individuals. The present research attempted to answer the question regarding which components of cognitive-behavioral therapy were more practical in peoples’ everyday life for keeping the lost weight or losing weight. Method: This was a qualitative study based on directed content analysis. A purposeful sampling procedure was used which aimed at women who had undergone cognitive-behavioral therapy for weight loss, and who were able to keep their weight loss or had lost more weight at least ۶ months after therapy. The semi-structured interviewing by cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist specialized in weight loss was ended with ۱۸ people of these participants. Primary coding was done deductively based on Cooper and colleagues’ program for cognitive-behavioral therapy for weight loss. In addition, final components were approved by a matched group of women not in the sample, and by cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist specialized in weight loss. Results: From ۳۵ primary components which were extracted deductively from the cognitive-behavioral protocol, only ۱۷ components were approved by individual women who had undergone cognitive-behavioral therapy; such that the majority of these women reported using most of these ۱۷ components in their everyday lives, or evaluated them as highly important and practical for losing weight during therapy. Conclusion: The findings indicate that among many components involved in cognitive-behavioral therapy, only part of them are executed and practical, and that the rest of methods or components are forgotten or are not used. Therefore, it seems possible to focus cognitive-behavioral therapy on most practical components.

Keywords:

Cognitive-behavioral therapy , weight loss , qualitative research , Women