Applied psychology in obesity management.

"Why am I referred to a psychologist for weight loss? Is obesity a mental illness?"

Therein lies the stigma of being a psychologist - being associated solely with the treatment of psychological disorders.

Now, just because you're referred to the psychologist does not mean you have a mental disorder. Not all referrals to the psychologist are for mental health problems. Psychologists in the health services are professionals who use applied psychology principles to help individuals and families make lifestyle changes via behavioural and cognitive approaches towards better health and wellbeing. This may involve treating individuals living with psychological disorders, but the scope of a psychologist is much more than the treatment of illness. Psychological interventions also involve the provision of psychological, behavioural and social skills to improve quality of life towards the ability to thrive.

We're talking about health care, not sick care. We're also talking about health span, not life span. It's the quality of life that we want to have given our finite time being alive.

In the case of weight loss and management for obese individuals, a lot of psychological factors are addressed, especially continued motivation towards sustainable weight loss and improved quality of life. Getting the motivation itself take quite a bit of work and the maintenance of motivation involves addressing sabotaging thoughts that are barriers towards progress. There are also behavioural components where new behaviours are being learnt and habit changes are being made towards weight loss and healthier lifestyle goals.

Then there are the social and environmental components of weight loss. There has to be social support to provide psychological safety and to facilitate the motivation to move towards a healthier weight. The environment surrounding the overweight and obese individual need to also facilitate healthy eating and adequate physical activities that contributes to healthy weight loss.

This year's World Obesity Day theme is "Changing Perspectives: Let's Talk About Obesity". One perspective I'd like to change about the treatment of obesity is that it's much more of a psychosocial and environmental approach than a medical one alone. It takes systemic change to provide a scaffolding of resources for overweight and obese individuals stay motivated, without stigma, to lose weight for a longer health span and quality of life.

Recently, I was invited by the Malaysian Association for the Study of Obesity (MASO) to give a public webinar. My choice of topic was "Motivational Interviewing for the Management of Obesity". The reason I picked the topic was because motivational interviewing is something that can be learnt by various health professionals including medical doctors, dieticians, nutritionists, exercise physiologists as an adjunct approach in their contribution towards attitude and behaviour change in the management of obesity.

The treatment of obesity requires attitude and behaviour change. Motivation is a crucial element. Motivational interviewing has been found to be very effective in the area of addictions treatment. It is now found to be effective also in the area of obesity management. The main idea of motivational interviewing is to ask questions in a way that provide a sense of agency and self-efficacy in the individual to progress towards the goal of weight loss, by verbalising the ability to prepare and act on steps towards their goals. It is a method that minimises resistance and uses the individual's personal values as a motivator for change. Making it part of conversations concerning obesity can help nudge overweight and obese individuals, as well as their family and friends to move towards healthier weight management. There's much more to be said on motivational interviewing but I shall stop here as there are plenty of resources online to refer to.

My main point is that there's much that we can do in contributing to the motivation to be healthier. With regards to obesity - that's to lose weight healthily. Motivational interviewing is one of the evidence-based methods that can facilitate that motivation to change and to sustain change. With the proper training and practice, it can be carried out by any health professional to provide value-added contents to obesity management.

Obesity affects all of us, and we're all in it together to address the problems of obesity. It takes a village to motivate and sustain motivation. Let's do away with the stigma of obesity and let's support the effort to be healthy.

We can all work together to ensure happier, healthier, and longer lives for everybody. - World Obesity Day 2023

More information on World Obesity Day can be found here: Homepage | World Obesity Day

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