Weight management preferences in a non-treatment seeking sample.

BACKGROUND Obesity is a serious public health issue in the United States, with the CDC reporting that most adult Americans are now either overweight or obese. Little is known about the comparative acceptability of available weight management approaches in non-treatment seeking samples. METHOD This report presents preliminary survey data collected from an online sample on weight management preferences for 8 different weight management strategies including a proposed incentive-based program. Participants were 72 individuals (15 men, 55 women and 2 transgendered individuals) who self-re-ported being overweight or obese, or who currently self-reported a normal weight but had attempted to lose weight in the past. RESULTS ANOVA and Pair-wise comparison indicated clear preferences for cer-tain treatments over others in the full sample; most notably, the most popular option in our sample for managing weight was to diet and exercise without pro-fessional assistance. Several differences in preference between the three weight groups were also observed. CONCLUSIONS Dieting and exercising without any professional assistance is the most highly endorsed weight management option among all groups. Overweight and obese individuals may find self-management strategies for weight loss less attractive than normal weight individuals, but still prefer it to other alternatives. This has implications for the development and dissemination of empirically based self-management strategies for weight.