Affective and cognitive predictors of lapse in exercise and dietary behavior: an ecological momentary assessment study amongst Dutch adults trying to lose weight.

Objective: When losing weight, many individuals make healthy changes in their exercise and dietary behavior. However, maintaining these changes is often found to be challenging. To prevent individuals from lapsing, insight into predictors of lapse in exercise and dietary behavior is needed.

Methods and measures: An ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study amongst Dutch adults trying to lose weight was performed. Adults (N = 81) participated in two seven-day EMA weeks. Participants received six semi-random prompts a day, at which they indicated whether a lapse had occurred and responded to questions assessing emotional states, stress, hunger, coping self-efficacy and recovery self-efficacy. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine associations with lapse.

Results: For exercise behavior, significant associations were observed between feeling hungry (OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.01-1.29) and an increased risk of lapsing, and between feeling relaxed (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.72-0.95), coping self-efficacy (OR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.62-0.75) and recovery self-efficacy (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.69-0.89), and a reduced risk of lapsing. For dietary behavior, significant associations were observed between coping self-efficacy (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.76-0.86) and recovery self-efficacy (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.76-0.86), and a reduced risk of lapsing.

Conclusion: Practitioners and intervention programs promoting sustainable physical activity and dietary change should focus on enhancing individuals' self-efficacy, for which coping planning and cognitive restructuring could be efficacious techniques.