The Buddy Benefit: Increasing the Effectiveness of an Employee-Targeted Weight-Loss Program

Abstract

It is well known that significant others (particularly romantic partners) can influence people's weight management efforts. However, what constitutes effective support-and from which type of individual (e.g., romantic partner, family member, friend)-is unclear. Thus, framed by confirmation theory, we assessed the effectiveness and types of communication of a weight-loss "buddy" through reports of 704 individuals enrolled in a 15-week synchronous online weight-loss program. Roughly 54% of participants chose buddies; and those who did lost more weight and waist inches than those who were involved in the program without buddy support. We also found that a combination of high accepting and high challenging messages from buddies was associated with the greatest decrease in body mass index (BMI) as well as the greatest reduction in waist size. Furthermore, the support by romantic partners paralleled support by other types of buddies. Having a supportive buddy who was not a romantic partner was just as effective as turning to a romantic partner for assistance. This study underscores the important role of a buddy in supporting weight-loss program involvement and encourages individuals to consider enlisting the help of a buddy, as opposed to losing weight alone, in order to maximize weight management effectiveness.

Employees’ healthy eating and physical activity: the role of colleague encouragement and behaviour

“…Firstly, encouragement can be considered positive reinforcement of desirable behaviour, which may enhance motivation [ 1 ]. If employees perceive their colleagues as endorsing a healthy lifestyle, they may deduce that it is important and be more likely to adopt such behaviours.…”

“…Secondly, perceived encouragement could lead to a sense of responsibility towards those offering it. Not only does encouragement reflect what others find important, it also could create a sense of shared effort; employees could get the feeling that they do not want to let their well-meaning colleagues down by making unhealthy choices [ 1 , 15 ]. In this way, colleagues keep one another accountable, for example by motivating the other to go for a lunch walk even when it is raining [ 7 ].…”

“…In this article, we focus on the latter and argue for two potential ways in which colleagues can affect one another’s healthy behaviours: through encouraging each other to make healthy choices and by acting as role models. Firstly, via encouragement, colleagues can enhance each other’s motivation, increase their self-care and create a sense of shared responsibility for healthy choices [ 1 , 2 , 15 ]. Previous studies examined generic social support and social capital at the workplace, focussing more on trust between colleagues and solidarity [ 11 , 13 , 16 , 17 ].…”

An app-, web- and social support-based weight loss intervention for adults with obesity: the HelpMeDoIt! feasibility RCT

“…Another study 34 exploring predictors of adherence to a weight loss programme found that having a buddy (family member or friend) led to an increase in programme adherence from 79.9% to 96.1%. In a study 35 of 704 participants in a 15-week online weight loss programme, 54% of participants chose to use a buddy, and they lost more weight than those who did not have a buddy. The same level of effectiveness was found whether the buddies were romantic or non-romantic.…”

“…• CRF for 36 participants • EQ-5D, ICECAP-A for 35 Data revealed that the HelpMeDoIt! resource use data collection instrument identified and measured resource use items across a range of health services in both arms including GP, nurse, physiotherapist, hospital consultants for various specialties, community psychiatric nurse, A&E and hospital inpatient stay.…”