Behavioral experiments confirm that interventions with psychological factors facilitate weight management: a prospective cohort study

Abstract

Abstract The proportion of overweight or obese people in China was increasing year by year, and the objective demand for weight loss was stronger and stronger. Physical exercise was one of the simplest and most important ways to lose weight, but there were still objective reasons such as the inability to adhere to exercise, which made the effect of physical exercise on weight management not good. Previous studies had shown that psychological factors such as grit and motivation were related to individuals’ exercise behavior. However, the effect of additional extrinsic motivation on exercise behaviors remained unknown. Here, a new "exercise-incentive" model through behavioral experiments was conducted. The model showed that grit and motivation had an obvious relationship with individuals’ exercise behavior. Extrinsic motivation could significantly change individuals’ exercise behavior, and different psychological factors were associated with different exercise patterns. Meanwhile, we established the relationship among psychological factors, exercise patterns, and lifestyle factors, and finally identified effort, the sub-dimension of grit, as the core psychological factor for weight management. Our study, through behavioral experiments, provided a psychological perspective on weight management and potential targets for psychological interventions.