Eyes on the prize: The longitudinal benefits of goal focus on progress toward a weight loss goal

Abstract

Past research suggests that focusing on what has not yet been accomplished (goal focus) signals a lack of progress towards one’s high commitment goals and inspires greater motivation than does focusing on what has already been accomplished (accomplishment focus). The present investigation extends this research to a longitudinal, important domain by exploring the consequences of focusing on one’s goals versus accomplishments when pursuing a weight loss goal. Participants were tracked over the course of a 12-week weight loss program that utilized weekly group discussions and a companion website to direct participants’ focus toward their end weight loss goal or toward what they had already achieved. Goal-focused participants reported higher levels of commitment to their goal and, ultimately, lost more weight than did accomplishment-focused and no focus control participants. Accomplishment-focused participants did not differ from controls on any measure.

High trait self-control predicts positive health behaviors and success in weight loss

“…A third set of control participants completed no questionnaire. This manipulation is not germane to the current investigation but is described in detail elsewhere (Conlon et al, 2010). In this article, we report the effects of trait self-control on health behaviors without controlling for participants’ focusing condition.…”

Success Breeds Success: Weight Loss Dynamics in the Presence of Short-Term and Long-Term Goals

“…Furthermore, we calibrate the discount factor to be D = 0:99. 22 Note that we set a high discount factor as t represents a day, so the amount users discount future days may be quite little (unlike other dynamic structural models that measure time as months or years). The utility function points to some interesting aspects about weight loss e §orts.…”

“…al., 2004;Foster, Wadden, Vogt, and Brewer, 1997;Linde et. al., 2004) as there is suggestive evidence that people are more successful at losing weight if they are goal-focused (e.g., Conlon et. al., 2011).…”