Motivation and Its Relationship to Adherence to Self-monitoring and Weight Loss in a 16-week Internet Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention

Objective: To examine changes in motivation and the relationship of motivation to adherence to self-monitoring and weight loss in a 16-week Internet behavioral weight-loss intervention Design: Two-group randomized design Setting: This Study was conducted over the Internet Participants: Sixty-six women. ages 22-65. with a body mass index (BMI) between 25 and 40, and with a home computer with Internet access, participated Intervention: These data are from an Internet behavioial weight-loss program in which all participants received 3 face-to-face initial Session followed by the 16-week Internet program Main Outcome Measures: Adherence to self-monitoring and weight loss were the main outcome measures Analysis: Linear regression and mediation analysis using the Baron and Kenny method were conducted Results: Autonomous motivation increased initially and remained high for those who ultimately achieved a 5% weight loss, but declined over time for participants who did not achieve 3 5 A, weight loss Autonomous motivation at 4 weeks was a predictor of adherence to self-monitoring and 16-week weight loss Adherence mediated the relationship between autonomous motivation and weight loss Conclusions and Implications: These results suggest that autonomous motivation may be a promising intervention target for promoting program procedure adherence and weight loss