Being too optimistic 'prevents weight loss'

Personality traits have been found to influence weight loss, and being too optimistic can 'harm' weight loss efforts.

Research out today from the BioMed Central's open access journal, BioPsychoSocial Medicine, has shown the psychological characteristics which may contribute to weight loss.

Hitomi Saito from Doshisha University, Japan, worked with a team of researchers to psychologically profile 101 obese patients undergoing combined counselling, nutrition and exercise therapy at the Kansai Medical University Hospital Obesity Clinic over a period of six months.

The results of the research supported previous findings that some negative emotion has a positive effect on behaviour modification, because 'patients care more about their disease'. The researchers said that patients who were able to improve their self-awareness through counselling were more likely to lose weight than those who were not.

'It is important to enhance patients' self-effectiveness and self-control in order to reduce psychological stress and to maintain the weight loss', state the authors.

But they added that: 'The weight loss should be attributed not simply to the intervention of the clinical psychologists but to the total effect of the intervention of a holistic medical care team.'

Optimism and self-orientation characteristics improved for most patients after the six-month program, although this was not related to weight loss. The researchers said patients who started the program with high levels of self-orientation and optimistic characteristics were less likely to lose weight.

However, they added that 'the overall improvement in optimistic ego state is not necessarily detrimental, as this increased optimism should result in patients maintaining the healthy lifestyle achieved at the clinic'.