Comparing the Effectiveness of Mindfulness Therapy Based on Self-compassion With Mindfulness Based on Cognitive Therapy on Weight Self-efficacy and Food Cravings in Overweight Women

Being overweight is a chronic, common, and debilitating disorder that is a risk factor for many diseases. In this regard, it is important to pay attention to some of the structures associated with weight loss. One of the structures involved in successful weight loss is weight self–efficacy. Determining the level of self–efficacy of people seeking weight loss treatment to initiate and maintain changes in eating habits can be a goal for early intervention in behavioral programs. Weight self–efficacy can affect food cravings by influencing the effort to succeed in a weight loss program. Researchers believe that the role of craving in maintaining addictive behaviors is intriguing, and therefore, craving for food is an important factor in treating eating problems. Thus, psychological interventions can improve weight self–efficacy and food cravings. The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness based on self–compassion with mindfulness based on cognitive therapy on weight self–efficacy and food cravings in overweight women.

The research method was quasi–experimental with a pretest–posttest design and a 3–month follow–up. The study population consisted of overweight women living in Isfahan who were referred to control and weight loss centers in 2020. From this community, 45 women were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental and one control group. The first experimental group received mindfulness training based on self–compassion in 8 weekly 60–minute sessions and the second experimental group participated in 8 weekly 60–minute sessions of mindfulness based on cognitive therapy. The control group was on the waiting list during this period. The inclusion criteria were as follows: a personal desire to participate in the research, overweight women (body mass index greater than 25), placement in the age range of 18–65 years, not suffering from acute or chronic mental disorders (by conducting an initial interview), not using simultaneous psychological treatments (by conducting an initial interview), not taking psychiatric drugs for the past three months (by conducting an initial interview), not suffering from physical diseases (by conducting an initial interview). The exclusion criteria were as follows: drug and alcohol consumption, non–cooperation or unwillingness to continue the research, not completing the assignments presented in the meetings, and absence from more than two meetings. The research instruments included Weight Lifestyle Self–Efficacy Questionnaire (Clark et al., 1991) and Food Craving Questionnaire (Meule et al., 2014). After collecting the data, at the descriptive level, mean and standard deviation and at the inferential level, after examining the research assumptions, the Chi–square test, repeated measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni post hoc test were calculated and conducted in the SPSS software version 24. In the present study, the significance level of statistical tests was considered 0.05.

The results showed that regarding the weight self–efficacy variable, the time factor, the group factor, and the interaction between time and group were significant (p<0.001). Regarding the variable of food craving, the time factor was significant (p<0.001). Nevertheless, the interaction factor of time and group (p=0.160) and group factor (p=0.770) were not significant. In the weight self–efficacy variable, there was a significant difference between the mindfulness based on self–compassion group and the control group (p<0.001) and the mindfulness based on cognitive therapy group and the control group (p=0.003). However, there was no significant difference between the two exprimental groups (p=0.170).

According to the results, mindfulness therapy based on self–compassion and mindfulness based cognitive therapy can improve overweight self–efficacy in overweight women, but have no effect on improving food cravings in this group.