Diseases Prevention, Search for a Healthier Lifestyle, and Aesthetic Motivation for Weight Loss

Abstract

Benevides C A R, Rocha I C S

Introduction: A lot of studies show relation between obesity and development of several diseases. This work aims to evaluate the profile and the motivation of people who want to lose weight, as well as identify, the reasons for failures to achieve their goals.

Methods: Were studied 187 whom wanted to lose weight, among which, 48.6% was between 35 and 44 years old and 86.6% were female.

Results: 44.4% among the participants had over weight by the Body Mass Index (BMI), 22.6% obesity grade I, 22% normal BMI, 7.5% obesity grade II and 3.5% obesity grade III. Among the main reasons that led them to want to lose weight, we had: to be healthier and to prevent diseases (38.5%), aesthetic reasons (33.6%) and to feel more willing (18,2%). Aesthetic reasons were more frequent among them had normal BMI (56%), while among the obese (grade I, II, III), health motivation was the most frequent (63.5%); in this group there was a higher prevalence of associated diseases and the chances to developing diseases for this group was 3.9 times greater than on the normal BMI group (p=0.002). On the other hand, among obese grade III, these odds increased to 8.9% (p=0.008). The majority (88.2%) assumed had no health habits: 49.7% of them by lack of discipline, 13% by lack of available time and 14% by lack of energy or emotional motivation to practice these healthy choices.

Conclusion: It’s important to know what happens on our patient’s mind, to choose the best therapeutical strategy in order to succeed in treatment. As this study showed that, among the higher degree of obesity, the greater the chances of having diseases, compared to the normal BMI group.

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