The comparative efficacy of cognitive and behavioral approaches to the treatment of obesity

The primary primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of a cognitive, a behavioral, and a combined cognitive-behavioral approach to weight reduction and maintenance. A nutrition-exercise group served as a minimal treatment control condition. Each of the four groups contained 15 health, obese (10% above ideal body weight) females recruited from the community. Subjects were matched and assigned to groups according to age (M = 37.87 years) and percentage overweight (M = 66%). The weight-reduction program was divided into an 8-week treatment phase, followed by a 1-year maintenance phase. At posttreatment, weight loss for the behavioral group (M = 4.74 kg) was significantly better than that of the control group (M = 2.345 kg). The combined group lost more weight (M = 4.58 kg) than the control group, a difference that was marginally significant. The cognitive group was the only condition that showed a continuing decrease in weight. However, there were no significant differences between the four groups during follow-up.All treatment manuals can be obtained from the first author.