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The National Mindless Eating Challenge: Dietary Profiles Predict a Differential Effectiveness of Interventions:
Author(s) -
Wansink Brian
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.1096.12
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , psychology , intervention (counseling) , clinical psychology , eating disorders , disordered eating , market segmentation , weight management , weight loss , medicine , obesity , psychiatry , marketing , business
While dieters may differ, dietary advice too often does not. There were two purposes of this study: 1) Develop a diagnostic means of segmenting dieters, and 2) determine which empirically‐based diet tips are most successful with which segments. The participants consisted of 2500 individuals who had joined the web‐based National Mindless Eating Challenge, expressing an interest in losing weight. After obtaining self‐reported pretest measures of weight and wellness, participants were randomly given three of 30 environmental diet changes (e.g., use smaller bowls, don't serve family style, and so on) that have been empirically suggested to reduce serving sizes or serving frequency. A majority of dieters lost more weight than those in a face‐to‐face high‐intervention control group. What is remarkable, however, is while some clusters of tips proved to be successful for some segments, other clusters of tips were more successful for other segments. These segmentation differences underscore why many interventions appear to have generally low power: their impact is diffused because it is inappropriate for other segments of dieters.