DESIRED AND ACTUAL WEIGHT LOSS GOALS DIFFERENT, BUT GOOD FOR OVERWEIGHT WOMEN

Women plan to lose more weight than they actually do, but they still shed pounds

INDIANAPOLIS – Overweight women who set higher goals for weight loss do just as well as those who set lower goals, even though the amount they desire to lose is greater than what is typically achieved in weight loss programs. This information, released today at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, underscores the importance of goal setting and suggests that overweight women may have steady success with weight loss if they set high goals and adjust their effort once they begin a program.
Researchers set out to determine whether the desired amount of weight loss is related to actual weight loss in overweight women by investigating 144 overweight women in a one-year behavioral weight loss treatment program. Prior to treatment, women reported their desired weight loss goal. The research team measured body weight, food intake and physical activity at the beginning, then again at six and 12 months into the program.
Actual weight loss averaged about 10 percent of the total body weight for participants, about 20 to 30 pounds for most individuals. Desired weight loss was three times this amount, an average of 60 pounds. While the women wanted to lose more weight than they actually did, the disparity between these goals did not deter some actual weight loss.
Further, setting a high goal did not have a negative impact on changes in eating or exercise behavior. Once in the program, the women were not apt to change their diet or exercise even though their weight loss fell below their personal goal, rather they were helped to adjust their goal weight based on the effort they were willing to put into their program.
"There is a lot of concern that setting a high goal is ‘bad’ because most people cannot achieve it. However, our data shows that overweight women can ‘aim high’ in terms of weight loss goals without putting themselves at risk of dropping out of a program or gaining weight,” said John Jakicic, Ph.D., FACSM. “But, to achieve these higher goals, women have to be willing to stick with it and truly adjust their lifestyle to adopt different eating and exercise habits.”
The American College of Sports Medicine is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world. In 2004, ACSM celebrates 50 years of leadership and scientific contribution. The college was founded in 1954 by a small but dedicated group of 11 professionals interested in the study of physical activity and sports. Today, more than 20,000 International, National, and Regional members carry on the founders goals of advancing and integrating scientific research to provide educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine.