In a meta-analysis of 37 studies, the effects of psychoeducational (health education and stress management) programs for coronary heart disease patients were examined. The results suggest that these programs yielded a 34% reduction in cardiac mortality; a 29% reduction in recurrence of myocardial infarction (MI); and significant (p < .025) positive effects on blood pressure, cholesterol, body w...

Prior research has shown that flexibility within mental budgets allows consumers to make exceptions to budget rules in order to justify indulgent choices. However, other research has suggested that too stringent of mental budgets can lead to self-control failure through self-control depletion and the “what-the-hell” effect. We propose that including slack, defined as a region of constrained fle...

Interventions for voluntary proenvironmental behavior change usually target a limited number of behaviors and have difficulties in achieving durable change. The EcoTeam Program (ETP) is an intervention package that aims to overcome these flaws. Through a combination of information, feedback, and social interaction in a group—the EcoTeam—participants focus on the environmental consequences of th...

BACKGROUND Worksite nutrition and physical activity interventions are important to help overweight and obese employees lose weight, but costs and insufficient sustained motivation prevent the majority of these programs from succeeding. Tailored text messaging in aiding weight management has been effective in several studies, but no studies have evaluated the effect of a tailored text message se...

Whereas exercise-induced mood enhancement has been well documented, the relationship between mood and exercise participation is less well understood. Mood states influence evaluative judgments that could plausibly influence a decision to exercise. Further, most exercise-mood research is limited to normal weight adults in response to a single exercise session. The current investigation examines ...

This study investigated the acceptability of two very-low-calorie diets in 16 moderately overweight persons participating in a weight reduction program. Subjects were prescribed a 1000-1200 kcal balanced diet the first month and asked to complete appetite and mood scales on a weekly basis. They were then randomly assigned to either a protein-sparingmodified fast (PSMF) or a protein-formula-liqu...

(i) In 2.2. Clinical Evaluation. Shimamoto et al. [3] studied seasonal variations in body composition and anthropometric characteristics during a weight loss program. The aim of our study was to examine cardiorespiratory parameters at IVT and peak exercise capacity, and it was not to evaluate the effects of a weight loss program on body composition in obese subjects. However, the season (Januar...

Obesity is an increasing problem in the United States. According to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) more than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese. Obesity can lead to multiple health problems such as heart disease and stroke. According to the CDC [1], in 2008, medical costs associated with obesity were estimated at $147 billion and the medical costs paid by third-party payers for peopl...