Successful Strategies for Weight Loss and Maintenance

Running Head: SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES FOR WEIGHT LOSS AND MAINTENANCE

At the conclusion of this study, I expect to collect data to answer the following three questions to discover successful strategies for healthy approaches to achieve and sustain a healthy weight in the fight against obesity.

1. Are there similarities among popular weight loss programs in their nutritional, physical activity, and behavior changing strategies?

2. Outside the confines of a commercial weight loss program, what similarities exist among weight loss strategies?

3. Can these strategies be incorporated successfully into lifestyle changes beyond the confines of a commercial weight loss program?

Lorena Firth

ORR510 – Organizational Research, October Semester

Professor Dr. Margaret Elgin

December 15, 2011

Table of Contents

The Setting and Problem(s) 3

Review of the Literature 6

Similarities 6

A Support Group 6

Nutrition 7

Behavior Change 8

Physical Activity 9

Maintaining Weight Loss Demands Lifestyle Changes 10

Supplemental Weight Loss Resources 11

Summary of Literature Review 11

Methodology 14

Hypotheses 14

Research Methodology 15

Weight Loss Strategies Survey 16

Proposed Data Analysis 18

References 19

Appendix ‘A’ 22

Appendix ‘B’ 23

The Setting and Problem(s)

In the United States obesity has become a health issue of epidemic proportion, and the trend is increasing, “by 2050 60% of men and 40% of women will be clinically obese” (James, 2008, p. 336). The World Health Organization for Food and Agriculture Organization in the United Nations emphasizes the importance of nutrition in public policies and community programs to decrease the risk of obesity and co-morbidities, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer. The “Japanese, with negligible CHD (cardiovascular heart disease), diabetes and obesity in the 1970s, were consuming on average 14% fat” (James, 2008) compared to their United States counterparts who on...