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For decades, standard obesity treatment has largely relied on a one-size-fits-all approach. But evidence is mounting that weight-loss plans tailored to a person's particular obesity phenotype can be more effective and can have a positive impact on mood, self esteem, and anxiety as well.
In a secondary analysis of a preliminary proof-of-concept study, Afton Koball, PhD, LP, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues evaluated participants with emotional eating (EE) from the original nonrandomized study for weight loss and outcomes. Participants had originally been sequentially assigned to a standard lifestyle intervention (SLI, n=81) versus a phenotype tailored lifestyle intervention (PLI, n=84), based on results from baseline phenotyping tests.
Emotional eating, sometimes called stress eating, is usually defined as overeating in response to negative emotions. The EE phenotype was categorized in the study as a score of ≥7 on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale for Anxiety. Weight loss outcome and changes in eating behaviors and mood were evaluated among EE participants, with the EE group assigned to either an SLI (19 patients) or a PLI (26 patients).
