Better body image helps weight loss

Obesity is known to increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease and can significantly shorten life expectancy.Technical University of Lisbon’s Pedro J Teixeira, who led the research, said: “Body image problems are very common amongst overweight and obese people, often leading to comfort eating and more rigid eating patterns, and are obstacles to losing weight.”“Our results showed a strong correlation between improvements in body image, especially in reducing anxiety about other peoples’ opinions, and positive changes in eating behaviour.”Researchers from Technical and Bangor universities (Spain and Britain, respectively) enrolled overweight and obese women on a year-long weight loss programme, reports the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity.