Multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention in the obese: its impact on patients perception of the disease, food and physical exercise

Background and aims: To be successful, lifestyle intervention in obesity must take into account patients' views. The aim of the present study, conducted using a narrative-autobiographical approach, was to report on the perception of disease, food and physical exercise in a group of 80 obese patients during a structured multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention. Methods and Results: Patients underwent lifestyle intervention, of three months' duration, structured in the following steps: 1) an initial medical examination; 2) an interview by a psychologist; 3) an assessment by a dietician, 4) a physical examination by a specialist in sports medicine; 5) an individualized program consisting of 24 sessions (two per week) of structured indoor exercise 6) eight sessions of group therapeutic education; 7) Nordic walking activity combined with walking excursions during weekends. All the narrative autobiographic texts obtained during the lifestyle intervention were submitted for content analysis; data were analysed according to the ''grounded theory'' method. According to patients' descriptions at the end of the intervention, lifestyle intervention resulted in enhanced self-efficacy and a reduction in their dependency on food and people; their fear of change was also diminished because, by undergoing intervention, they had experienced change. Conclusion: The findings made in the present qualitative analysis suggest that whenever multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention is planned for patients with obesity, it is of the utmost importance to tailor the approach while taking the following key aspects into account: motivation, barriers and/or facilitators in lifestyle change, patients' perceptions of obesity and relationship with food, diet and exercise. © 2011 Elsevier B.V

The Impact of Strenuous Group Physical Activity on Mood States, Personal Views, Body Composition and Markers of Myocardial Damage in Overweight/Obese Adults. The “Step-by-Step Italy’s Coast to Coast” Trek

It is clinically relevant to understand whether is safe to recommend to trained overweight/obese people long-distance treks and if these experiences could have a negative psychological impact or become even dangerous exposing the trekkers to the risk of a clinically silent myocardial damage. To answer this questions we have performed a quantitative/qualitative study comparing the changes in mood profiles, personal views, body composition and plasma troponin levels of 40 overweight/obese subjects with those of 36 healthy normal weight subjects after the participation to a trek of 388 km from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian seas trek: the “Step by step…Italy’s coast to coast”. The results of this study demonstrate that long distances treks are a safe activity for trained overweight/obese people which should be recommended because improves mood, health status and the relationship of participants with themselves and with the regular practice of exercise with effects similar to those obtained by healthy normal weight subjects