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How do people achieve and remain at a comfortable weight?: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2013

Sarah Alsawy  and
Warren Mansell
Sarah Alsawy*
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Warren Mansell
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Miss S. Alsawy, School of Psychological Sciences, Coupland I, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK (email: [email protected])
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Abstract

This study aimed to examine how people change in order to achieve and maintain a personally comfortable weight and what changes for them as they change. Six students who changed to achieve and maintain a personally comfortable weight for a minimum of 1 year were recruited. Semi-structured interviews explored participants’ experiences of what changed and how they changed. The interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Two superordinate themes emerged. The first was ‘awareness’ which contained the subthemes: unaware self, revelation, and conscious monitoring and maintenance of awareness. The second was ‘goals and needs’ which contained the subthemes: social- vs. self-acceptance, removing negative emotions, weight control vs. other life goals, and ideal vs. perceived health and appearance. The findings are discussed in relation to the existing literature on the development of eating problems, involving social acceptance, self-esteem, coping with negative moods, and weight control. Perceptual Control Theory was used to provide an explanation for how these participants changed and maintained their change.

Keywords

Acceptancecontroleating disordersqualitative methodsrecovery style
Type
Original Research
Information
the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist , Volume 6 , 2013 , e13
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2013 

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References

Recommended follow-up reading

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Powers, WT (2005). Behavior: The Control of Perception, 2nd edn. New Canaan, CT: Benchmark.Google Scholar

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