Health Promotion and Weight Management for Obesity

Abstract Obesity is prevalent and carries substantial individual and societal-level consequences, including increased mortality and high health care costs. Obesity is best viewed as a chronic disease that requires both individual and system-level interventions that take into account a multitude of contributing factors. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) principles and strategies can play a role in the treatment of individuals with obesity primarily by addressing barriers to healthy behavior change by teaching values, acceptance, defusion, and mindfulness skills. Interventions incorporating these ACT methods have shown improved obesity management outcomes relative to current gold standard behavioral treatments, and ACT can be considered evidence for use in this area. However, behavioral treatments in general are limited in terms of reach and effectiveness, and system- and environmental-level interventions will be required to meaningfully address obesity worldwide. Future research on ACT and other contextual therapeutic approaches should focus on addressing these system-level factors in order to support already well-developed individual-level interventions.